Leena Dobouni on using art to negotiate cultural differences and conflict

Thursday, April 08, 2021

IUPUI recognizes 50 graduate and professional students each year for their achievements in areas such as campus leadership, scholarly work, and community engagement.

The Elite 50 are the best of the best, embodying everything that distinguishes our campus. This year's honorees include Luis Garcia and Leena Dobouni, both of whom will graduate this spring. We are very proud of them and will feature their work in Q&As.

We spoke with Leena Dobouni, a graduate student in Herron's M.F.A. program in Visual Art, about her path into installation art and the concepts that drive her work and artistic practice.

HERRON: How did you react when you learned you had been named to the 2021 Elite 50 list?

LEENA DOBOUNI: I was ecstatic! It was one of the things I wanted to accomplish before graduating with my M.F.A. I was nominated for the Top 100 twice as an undergrad but never applied, so I made it a goal to apply for the Elite 50 this year. I'm so glad it paid off, and I'm honored to be among such an amazing group of students. It feels like I'm being rewarded and recognized for the work that I do in the best possible way.

HERRON: Danielle Riede said you have a "strong voice" and "[ask] critical questions with [your] work about what it means to be an Iraqi-American woman today." How are you conceptualizing these issues through your artistic practice?

DOBOUNI: I frequently find myself delving into political history and how it has shaped the world we live in as well as the prejudices we have today. There is something to be said for investigating how society came to be the way it is if we hope to change anything in the future. I am drawn to imagery that involves the Middle East while also allowing viewers to relate their own backgrounds and ideas to the piece.

Another method I enjoy is using the viewer's expected preconceived notions and prejudices and then flipping the narrative to the piece's benefit. However, there are times when I just need to hit the nail on the head and say what I need to say.

"A Thoughtful Gift from an American" is one of my favorite works that goes along with the latter idea. This piece was driven by an interaction I had with my roommate at the time, in which she handed me an Iraqi dinar as an afterthought because she wanted the frame it was in. The dinar was given to her by a member of her family who had been in Iraq as a U.S. Air Force pilot, and it was so baffling to me that someone could hand me a piece of a culture that they had nearly completely destroyed so casually. It was one of those times when I needed to express myself completely in the piece.

Leena Dobouni, "A Thoughtful Gift from an American," 2020. Iraqi Dinar, concrete sheeting, concrete blocks, silkscreen printing, ash, rebar, and wood. Dimensions variable. Leena Dobouni

HERRON: What is the message or aim of your installations?

DOBOUNI: My hope is for change to occur as a result of increased awareness. An abhorrent amount of activity between the West and the Middle East is being concealed from the public eye. The justifications I've heard from the media and even acquaintances for the genocide taking place in the Middle East show that the big picture isn't being considered. My hope is that my installations immerse viewers in an environment that allows them to question the script that has been handed to them.

With luck, it will be like tugging at a loose thread in a tapestry. My aspiration is to pique their interest long enough for them to want to dig deeper. The best moments are when viewers approach me and tell me that they have done more research into the ideas that my installations touch on.

HERRON: What images are depicted in your work? Where do you find inspiration, and what do you think about when you're in the studio?

DOBOUNI: My imagery combines action and reaction, or one or the other. Another line of thought that I've been following in my studio is chronological timelines. "Divide and Conquer," a piece I created in November of last year, is a great example of both trains of thought. This piece, like many others in my "Collateral Damage" series, incorporates text and Arabic calligraphy as a vehicle for shape and form.

I analyze the history of the West's global rise and the Middle East's significant, if not consequential, decline in the global landscape. In a nutshell, what I think about in my studio is politics, family, history, history repeating itself, and seeing society's morality moving in a positive direction. I'm grateful to Herron and IUPUI for providing such a safe and diverse environment in which I can freely and without judgment express all of my concepts.

HERRON: You received your B.F.A. in printmaking from Herron in 2017. What drew you to Herron for an M.F.A. in visual art, and how has your art evolved since you were an undergraduate student?

DOBOUNI: Herron took such good care of me as an undergrad working on my B.F.A. All of the faculty members were extremely supportive of my interdisciplinary, mixed-media approach and encouraged me to move forward with the concepts and executions of my creations that I was interested in. I was honored to receive amazing offers from schools across the country, but Herron's offer was the best.

I knew that Herron had excellent resources, faculty, and programs for their students. Herron is also very clear about all of the financial resources available to you during your M.F.A., including scholarships, fellowships, and graduate and teaching assistant positions. It also helped a lot that I was offered a graduate fellowship. That made me feel appreciated and valued, and it made me eager to return to Herron.

HERRON: Your work is very material-focused, with printmaking playing an important role in your installations. How do you investigate and communicate ideas using these process-based techniques?

DOBOUNI: Printmaking has been a great tool for me because it has taught me patience in the creative process. There is almost no instant gratification, and I must be patient if I am to achieve the desired result.

Rather than two-dimensional imagery, many of my newer installations consider the material's conceptual connotations. In this way, I feel like I'm moving away from printmaking's traditional roots, but in other ways, my creative process reflects that of making a print, and the process feels quite similar. It has somehow become a habit of mine that I cannot make one iteration of an installation, despite the fact that they are oriented around the specific space in which they are created. I seem to treat my installations as if they were different print editions.

Leena Dobouni, "Divide and Conquer," 2021. Calligraphy ink, mylar, silkscreen printing, concrete sheeting, concrete blocks, black spray paint, and ash. Leena Dobouni

HERRON: Tell us a little about your thesis project. What is the topic or theme, and what do you hope to achieve?

DOBOUNI: Right now, my thesis project is extremely exciting to me – as it should be. This project may be more exciting than the others because it will most likely be the largest installation I will create to date. I won't say too much because I'd love for everyone to come see it in person at the Berkshire, Reese, and Paul Galleries if they can, but I'm getting 3 to 5 cubic yards of sand delivered.

I'll also say that it's heavily based on true historical events that still accurately reflect and mirror the West's and the Middle East's relationship today. It touches on obscurity and the resulting devastation, but unrecognized loss on a global scale. The exhibition will be open to the public in early May.

HERRON: What has been your greatest success or most rewarding academic experience to date?

DOBOUNI: It may sound cheesy, but seeing my final thesis paper come together and take shape has been rewarding. It was a daunting task at the start of the year, and seeing my body of work intertwined with historical fact and literary evidence in a cohesive piece of text makes my art-making feel profoundly more professional.

Another exciting academic endeavor has been to collaborate on the design of a public seating area for the Herron grounds. A generous gift from the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation enabled two others and me to leave a permanent, creative imprint on the IUPUI campus. The fabrication has already begun on Herron's south-east corner (on the corner of Blackford St. and Ohio St. facing the fields). If you are near campus during the summer, you might be able to see it come together.

HERRON: Your contributions to Herron as a graduate fellow in the Office of Admissions and Student Services have ranged from administrative assistance to mentoring incoming students through the college transition. What impact has this two-year experience had on your studies?

DOBOUNI: Shannon McCullough's offer of a graduate fellowship before I had even begun my M.F.A. was encouraging. It confirmed that I had made the right decision by returning to Herron and that my work had been recognized and valued during my B.F.A. I believe the position has provided me with an opportunity to pursue a career in academic administration for which I would not have previously considered myself qualified. This fellowship has inspired me to seriously consider pursuing a doctorate in Education.

While I don't think it has had a direct impact on my body of work, seeing the administrative side of things has taught me as a student to always shoot your shot. I had no idea how many resources and opportunities students have simply by asking.

HERRON: What was the most influential class or professor for you?

DOBOUNI: Without a doubt, Patrick Kinsman's Art Theory and Criticism (HER-H 410). He has an unbelievable wealth of knowledge, and the class is a perfect complement to the M.F.A.'s preparations for writing our final thesis. I'm sure the class would have been even better in person, but even online, I was encouraged to think about how my body of work fit into the past and future of conceptual theory. The difference between how I was able to formally analyze my art before and after this class is like night and day.

HERRON: What is your next step after graduation?

DOBOUNI: I am currently applying for assistant curatorial positions as well as positions in higher education administration in the United States and abroad. I'm not sure where I'll end up, but it's fun to keep my options open. It would be a dream come true if I could land a job as an assistant curator at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

HERRON: What advice would you give students who want to pursue a similar career path?

DOBOUNI: Don't limit yourself too soon. A career in the arts, in my opinion, is all about flexibility. Firstly, you should be flexible in terms of academic electives. I had no idea what printmaking was until I took my first class, and it became the focus of both my undergraduate and graduate studies. You could fall in love with something you have no knowledge of or experience with. Even if the course does not introduce you to your next artistic love, it will provide you with knowledge that you may be able to apply to your body of work in the future. Never underestimate the power of a learned skill.

The second type of flexibility is the ability to pursue professional opportunities that do not appear to be directly related to the path you believe you are on. These kinds of opportunities can provide you with additional marketable skills or networking contacts. Again, you might find a new and interesting career in an art-adjacent field that you want to pursue, or you might get to introduce your art to a new group of people and advertise what you do creatively.

HERRON: What is the one question you wish we had asked, and what is your response?

DOBOUNI: I was accepted into the School of Science at IUPUI and was two years into an Environmental Science degree with a geology concentration. Coming into IUPUI with a pretty standard academic background, I began to fail almost all of my classes by the second semester. Science was always an interest of mine, but I was always under pressure to pursue a degree that was practical and tangible, and my motivation to do something that I wasn't completely invested in was dwindling.

While that is a great way for many people to find their careers, it was clearly not working for me. Faisal Alqahtani, a really good friend of mine, sat me down one day and asked, "If you believed you could do anything, succeed at anything…no social and familial pressure…what would you do?" "Art," I said. After that, all he said to me was, "Live life simply."

I realized I'd been feeding a self-sustaining construct of expectation that I didn't have to be. When I decided to pursue a BFA full-time, my grades improved. My family needed some convincing but were more supportive than I had anticipated, and I was happier than I had been in a long time. Making a simple decision for myself changed the course of my career and my life, and I will be eternally grateful to Faisal for asking that simple question.

Follow Leena Dobouni's activities via Instagram.

Herron School of Art + Design

Leena Dobouni on using art to negotiate cultural differences and conflict

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