On Some "Othering" Terms: the horror vacui, the modern use of Arabesque etc. and the allegation of aesthetics as content - evading, rather than addressing meaning in the use of design in Islamic art Part II

Authors : Terrance Michael Patrick Duggan

Pages : 40-74

View : 24 | Download : 44

Publication Date : 2023-12-30

Article Type : Research

Abstract :This article is divided into two parts. It concerns some confusions and misapprehensions consequent upon the use of some newly devised and older European terms that have been applied to describe the use of designs in Islamic art, othering terms, that unfortunately if not always deliberately, mislead. The use of these terms has resulted in the widespread misreading of the intent and content of design on works of Islamic art that carry what is termed, "decoration,” "ornament,” "abstract design”. This article questions the idea that Islamic designs developed due to iconophobia; or from an alleged fear of open spaces, a rare medical condition termed kenophobia, or, from any supposed fear of leaving empty spaces on a work, termed by orientalists, art historians and others from the late 19th c. onwards in respect to works of Islamic art, "horror vacui”. A term dismissive of any content to the designs employed, indicating these designs were employed just to fill otherwise empty space and is a term that continues in use in this context today, amongst a group of related terms repeatedly employed, resulting in the illusion of truth purveyed through their repeated use in the art historical and related literature, and the consequent deliberate(?) denial of content-meaning in the use of Islamic design
Keywords : Ötekileştirme, İslam sanatı, horror vacui, horror infiniti, Estetik, Oryantalizm, Soyut tasarım, terminoloji