Review: Punk Orientalism — The Art of Rebellion by Sara Raza
What does it mean to create art on the edge of empire? How does rebellion look, feel, or sound when expressed through color, canvas, or installation—far from the traditional centers of power? In her groundbreaking book Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion, curator and cultural theorist Sara Raza explores these urgent questions by traveling through the artistic landscapes of Central Asia and beyond.
This is not simply a book about art. It is a manifesto against the reductive lenses through which non-Western creativity is so often viewed. Raza writes with the conviction of someone who knows that true understanding must come from listening to local rhythms, local fractures, and local dreams.
🔍 What is "Punk Orientalism"?
Raza coins the term Punk Orientalism to describe a defiant creative attitude among artists emerging from the shadows of Soviet rule. Much like the punk movements in the West, these artists dismantle established norms—but they do so against a backdrop of post-Soviet transition, collective memory, and the lingering architecture of authoritarianism.
Their rebellion is visual, conceptual, and deeply historical. It’s a refusal to be boxed into stereotypes of “Central Asian exoticism” or “post-communist nostalgia.” Instead, these artists offer new cosmopolitan identities—irreverent, critical, and stunningly imaginative.
🖼 Artists & Movements in Focus
The book is structured around richly researched case studies that shine light on contemporary practices in countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and their diasporas. Raza profiles artists who engage with:
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Legacies of Soviet propaganda — dismantling old heroic monuments or reclaiming revolutionary symbols in ironic ways.
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Gender and body politics — using performance and photography to challenge patriarchal norms still embedded in post-Soviet societies.
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Spiritual and folkloric motifs — reimagining local traditions as vehicles of critique and cultural survival.
She also situates these works within global conversations on postcolonial theory, migration, and the politics of exhibition-making. In doing so, she connects these artists to broader struggles over who gets to narrate history—and who remains in the footnotes.
💥 Why This Book Matters
Punk Orientalism is not only an art historical study; it’s a sharp, passionate argument for looking beyond the “approved” stories of modernism and contemporary art. Raza challenges Western-centric art histories that have long treated regions like Central Asia as peripheral or derivative.
She also refuses simplistic binaries of East versus West. Instead, her book reveals a vibrant mesh of ideas, where artists draw on both local pasts and transnational futures, using their work to rewrite what it means to be modern, rebellious, and free.
🌿 Resonance with GONA Gallery
At GONA Gallery, we see art as a space of questioning and re-visioning. Punk Orientalism resonates with our mission to amplify voices that disrupt dominant narratives and bring new emotional and political landscapes into view.
Sara Raza’s book reminds us that sometimes the most radical gestures happen far from New York, London, or Paris. They occur in dusty towns where Soviet statues still stand, in hidden studios where old scripts become new performances, and in the restless imaginations of artists who refuse to be defined by empires past or present.
📚 Highly recommended for anyone invested in art that is critical, poetic, and fiercely alive.
📍 Visit our gallery in Nosara, Costa Rica, to discover more artists who challenge the status quo.
🔗 Follow us on Instagram: @gona.gallery
✍️ Next on the blog: A curated reading list on decolonial art practices, inspired by Sara Raza’s work.
Cover and interior spreads from Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion by Sara Raza, published by Black Dog Press, 2022.
Photographs courtesy of Black Dog Press and Hyperallergic / Nevdon Jamgochian. Used here for editorial and review purposes only.
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