2023/09/04

How Artists Co-Opt the Imperial Gaze

“While the view from above has historically been aligned to an imperial gaze, the use of commercial drones has co-opted this sightline as a part of protest against imperialism and colonisation.”
– Critic Daniel Jewesbury, parsing Kurdish artist Behjat Omer Abdulla’s film It’s Your Turn, Doctor (2018) in Sarah Tuck’s research documentation Drone Vision: Warfare, Surveillance, Protest (2022). The film juxtapozes drawings (based on Youtube footage) of a 2013 aerial bombing of the city of Daraa, Syria, and private drone footage of the asylum reception centre near Swedish Gothenburg.
$40 USD