Contemporary Kurdish Women’s Art from Prison: An Abolitionist Feminist Resistance
Koksal, O. and Rappas-Celik, I.A. 2028. Forthcoming. Contemporary Kurdish Women’s Art from Prison: An Abolitionist Feminist Resistance. 24 (3).
Koksal, O. and Rappas-Celik, I.A. 2028. Forthcoming. Contemporary Kurdish Women’s Art from Prison: An Abolitionist Feminist Resistance. 24 (3).
| Title | Contemporary Kurdish Women’s Art from Prison: An Abolitionist Feminist Resistance |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Koksal, O. and Rappas-Celik, I.A. |
| Abstract | This article explores the prison works of two Kurdish women artists, Fatoş İrwen and Zehra Doğan. It analyzes the works of these artists that were produced during a particularly dark period in the recent history of Turkey when the “peace process” ceased, and the Turkish army resumed violent attacks against Kurds in the southeast of the country in 2016. Both artists served time in prison for so-called terrorist propaganda and continued to produce art despite the limitations of incarceration. The essay analyzes the artists’ prison works in the framework of abolitionist decolonial feminism. The analysis of Doğan and İrwen’s prison works focuses on the artists’ subversive use of materials that are otherwise considered as abject. Their art embraces and re-envisions waste, producing a feminist epistemology that resists prison walls and colonial segregation. As both artists reclaim what the colonial matrix of power treats with contempt and disgust, their works become powerful statements of insurgence and resurgence. |
| Keywords | Abolitionist decolonial feminism, prison art, Kurdish women artists, materiality of art, art and waste, Fatoş İrwen, Zehra Doğan |
| Journal citation | 24 (3) |
| Year | 2028 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | Apr 2028 |