Abbey IT-A

One may argue that the original mandate of the earliest museums to make previously privatised objects public was an act of generosity – however contentious. The contemporary art museum inherits this and more, beyond the display of art works. More, here, includes all manner of “discursive events, film programs, radio and TV shows, integrated libraries and book shops as well as journals, reading groups, online displays, invitation cards, posters and residencies”.¹ The items listed in the receipts above were bought with the stipend I receive as a museum fellow or with a V&A Waterfront Gift Card, which the MOCAA presented to all the fellows. We may consider them extensions of such institutional generosity.

I reflect on a conversation with the photographer Yasser Booley. Their comments on cosmopolitanism in Islam immediately reminded me of the blaxTARLINES ethos of “transforming art from commodity to gift”. I find that the disparities between the practices of Sadaka, Zakat and Waqf offer an intriguing challenge: what may be considered a gift and how to measure the value of said gift?

1. Lucie Kolb & Gabriel Flückiger, ‘New Institutionalism Revisited’ ↩︎