Massoud Hayoun LOS ANGELES, USA, b. 1987
21st Century Occidentalist Portraiture, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 48 in
76.2 x 121.9 cm
76.2 x 121.9 cm
This piece reverses the European, Orientalist gaze which sexualises and exoticises Eastern cultures. Instead, we are confronted with the white, Western male with the world, specifically Africa, between his spread...
This piece reverses the European, Orientalist gaze which sexualises and exoticises Eastern cultures. Instead, we are confronted with the white, Western male with the world, specifically Africa, between his spread legs. Hayoun’s grandmother looks on in the guise of the traditionally male artist and as a radical, revolutionary force using a sharp knife to prepare harissa.