With Sundry Modernism, Oraib Toukan presents an informal register of moderist Palestinian architecturean assemblage of images and stories collected from 2013 to 2015 in the cities of nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jericho. Using her photographs to begin conversations with various residents, historians, and architects, Toukan places the collected anecdotes into political and historical context, weaving together both a narrative and a critique. Sundry Modernism, a chubby little jewel of a book, sets out to be a gesture, a nod, a salutation to, and a critique of the lines and angles of Palestinian modernism. It is a provocation on the act of looking, and, in particular, it is a proposal for reading apolitical forms in politicized contexts. Toukan is an artist and Clarendon Scholar at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. This publication follows Toukans participation in the 5th Riwaq Biennale (20142016).
