Eneseloome utoopilises eksotitsismis: Abdul Mati Klarweini “Milk N’ Honey”
Creating self in utopian exoticism: Abdul Mati Klarwein's “Milk N' Honey”

Summary/Abstract: Inspired by the recent resurgence of academic interest in exoticism, the article elaborates on some of the theoretical vindications of the phenomenon by concentrating on its aspects as the Romantic/Modernist artist’s ultimate act of creating Self through the Other. Not being content with the (largely Westernised) genuine exotic cultures, an exote creates his/her own hybrid utopian sign system where elements of various exotic cultures are blended in order to resolve the overabundance of competing identities and establish a superior, transcendent and all-inclusive identity. The artist Abdul Mati Klarwein is a complex and exciting example of this practice. His aesthetic and spiritual act of creating a utopian exotic Self in the book “Milk N’ Honey” (1973) is essentially a radical rewriting of the Old and New Testaments, including pictures from his self-designed Aleph Sanctuary chapel and texts blending black slang with Jewish humour. I will argue that it would be short-sighted to view Klarwein in the postcolonialist vein as a mere white “Negrophile” or “Orientalist” who plunders exotic cultures for his artistic career; having a most complex ethnic background from an Arab-friendly German/Jewish family, he was educated in the Parisian avant-garde and found the most supportive cultural context in the Afro-American utopian exoticism of the “astro-black” mentality.

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