Oil / Art Workers
Which Iraqi photographer worked for the Iraq Petroleum Company in the 1950s and documented Baghdad’s oil-driven modernization?
Latif Al Ani
What kind of media did oil companies use to promote their image to local and global audiences?
Corporate films, magazines, photographs, and exhibitions
Which oil company published the English-language magazine AramcoWorld starting in 1949?
Aramco
Which country’s oilfields were set on fire during the Gulf War of 1991?
Kuwait
What does the exhibition title Crude refer to besides unrefined oil?
A “crude” history of petromodernity — fragmented, incomplete, and critical
Which major architectural figures were invited to design projects in Baghdad during the oil boom?
Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, and Le Corbusier
What was the name of the first Technicolor film produced in Iran by the AIOC in 1951?
Persian Story
What did the ARD (Arabian Research Division) specialize in producing for Aramco?
Translations, ethnographies, policy reports, and cultural knowledge used for control and influence
Who directed the famous film Lessons of Darkness, which documented these burning oilfields?
Werner Herzog
Which Gulf phenomenon does the exhibition explore as a key force shaping society and culture?
Oil and its infrastructures
How did Latif Al Ani’s aerial photography reflect the impact of oil on urban landscapes?
It showcased modernist transformations like Tahrir Square
Which artists used the abandoned “Persian Story” archives to create the work Seep?
Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi
Which artist’s work, The ARD: Study for a Portrait, dissected the construction of Aramco’s knowledge systems?
Hajra Waheed
Which Kuwaiti artist made the film Behind the Sun using archival VHS footage of the oil fires?
Monira Al Qadiri
How does the exhibition challenge conventional oil narratives?
By foregrounding everyday life, soft power, and artistic resistance rather than just geopolitics
Which Iranian modernist painter depicted oil workers in labor-intensive scenes, often revealing both their strength and hardship?
Houshang Pezeshknia
How did Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck’s work UNstabile-Mobile critique U.S. soft power?
By linking modern art diplomacy to U.S. oil interests in Iraq and geopolitical interventions
What did Manal AlDowayan’s If I Forget You, Don’t Forget Me document?
Oral histories and personal archives of early Saudi oil workers and their transformation through oil
What does Hajra Waheed’s Plume 1–24 depict, and why is it powerful?
Isolated smoke clouds from oil fires, turning them into abstract symbols of violence, pollution, and memory
What is meant by “following the oil,” a concept referenced in the catalogue?
Tracing oil’s impact through social, cultural, political, and material networks