Yale University Press recently published a book on the research presented and panel discussions held during the 9th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art.
The publication was in association with Qatar Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (VCUarts) in Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), and bears the same title as the conference – The Environment and Ecology in Islamic Art and Culture – held at VCUarts Qatar in 2021. VCUarts Qatar is a partner university of Qatar Foundation.
Eco-conscious ethos
The book was edited by three art history scholars, two of whom are members of VCUarts Qatar faculty – Associate Professor and Director of Art History Dr Radha Dalal and Associate Professor Dr Jochen Sokoly. Dr Sean Roberts, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s School of Art, is the third editor. The three scholars were also co-chairs of the 2021 conference.
The topics explore the optimistic, sustainable and innovative responses adopted by artists and builders across Islamic civilisation while acknowledging the often irreversible and escalating damage that necessitates such ingenuity. As a whole, the volume considers how art historical, anthropological and archaeological research on the Islamic world can engage with these concerns philosophically, methodologically and, above all, practically.
Announcing the launch of the book, Dr Dalal said that an eco-conscious ethos has traditionally characterised Islamic scripture and culture. Historical and contemporary Islamic visual traditions have demonstrated this consciousness in urban planning, landscape architecture, water management, and a host of other art forms throughout Islamic lands, including in Qatar, and into the Muslim diaspora.
Despite this awareness, in the present epoch of the Anthropocene, human intervention has caused irreparable damage to the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystems instigating changes on an unprecedented scale.
Dr Dalal said that as art history shifts its disciplinary attention to address the unfolding global crisis, the volume considers how ecological art history can examine objects, materials and the built environment through the dual lenses of Islamic culture and climatic change.
She said that they invited chapters that consider anthropogenic transformations of land and water, conceptualisation and representations of the changing natural world, artistic responses to recent and historical climatic events, and the intersections of such shifting environments with human experiences of gender, race, and socioeconomic status around the globe.
Copies of the book are now available for purchase from the Yale University Press.
Those interested in learning more about the biennial conference, or the upcoming 10th edition, which will be held from 11 to 13 November at VCUarts Qatar, can visit islamicart.qatar.vcu.edu.
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