Fighting Powers

Abstract

Fighting Powers analyzes Leena Dobouni’s body of installation artwork as it relates to concepts of socio-political imbalance between the Middle East and Western powers. The West’s systemic degradation of the Middle East is examined through the theories of the post-colonial / imperial gaze, psychological myopia and social dominance theory. The thesis poses that historical events during the early 20th century set the stage for the current rapport that the West has with the Middle East. T. E. Lawrence, Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot are three main players in the instigation of the inequitable relations between the West and the Middle East. Investigation of these ideas and events support the presented viewpoint that socio-structural marginalization of the “other” in Western communities is irrefutable and that the idea of the “lesser” is born out of “othering." Dobouni’s unique experiences as a Muslim of mixed Iraqi-American heritage in the Western and imperial gaze has allowed her to observe distinct narratives of political tension between the two sides of her upbringing.