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The most recent show at the Ellipse Arts Center in Arlington, titled Transform/Nation: Contemporary Art of Iran and Its Diaspora, explores the themes of identity, tradition, stereotype, and society that Iranian artists confront within their works. It is a show that is not about to divorce the work on the wall with the history of Iran; it chooses to engage it head on. What does it mean to be Iranian: politically, socially, and culturally?
There is, what can at best be considered, an international style in several of the works on the wall. The works by Afarin Rahmanifar, Samira Yamin, and Samira Abbassys fuse together traditional and Western approaches within the structure of a two-dimensional image. Flat rendering and heavy use of pattern butt heads with volume, perspective and collage. The process becomes a stylistic means of engaging cultural identity for these three women who have expatriated from Iran in pursuit of their education and livelihoods. At times this style questions the stereotypically Western view of Middle Eastern identity, as is the case in Yamin’s Le Grave Odalisque, which integrates a bombed out car from Ramallah with a segment of Ingre’s La Grande Odalisque: the violent and protestant suicide bomber meets the seductive harem mistress.
Identity, tradition, stereotype and society are all at work in Haleh Anvari’s photographs of women in chadors, a garment that covers the body and head. The concepts of modesty and privacy promoted through the Islamic hijab are often misconstrued as oppression in the West, and Anvari’s photographs take pains to escape the mainstream media’s iconic depiction of the oppressive black chador. Her figures move through Western landscapes in brightly colored and patterned chadors.
Afarin Rahmanifar Recess of a Journey #4, 12"x 10", mixed media, 2005, courtesy of Ellipse Arts Center
Two video pieces focus on life in Tehran, and paint a vivid portrait of the everyday. Bani Khoshnodi’s Tehran Portraits, captures the look of Tehran through four looping video portraits with themes of freedom, progress, movement and information. Within the videos people walk through civic squares, construct slab-concrete buildings, and hang out in the streets. Though our leaders bicker over nuclear rights, life goes on in Tehran as it does in New York City; the ant farms of industry and commerce still scurry. Kaya Behkalam’s Tehran Reflections positions two video projects perpendicular to one another. One video shows painted public portraits of Iran’s leaders, military heroes and contemporary martyrs. The other video shows the civic spaces and the shop windows, sunglasses, and chrome falafel stands that reflect the paintings. More interesting are the interviews with people the artist meets while making these records. At one point, beneath the eyes of big brother, there is open discussion of how Iran was better before the (Iranian) Revolution (in 1978).
Transform/Nation continues at the Ellipse Arts Center, 4350 N. Fairfax Drive, through August 4th. The gallery is open Wednesday-Friday 11 – 7 and Saturday 11– 2 and is located one block west of the Ballston Metro. Parking is $3. Panel Discussion, Thursday, July 19, 7-9PM: The Power of a Cliché: Exhibiting Iran.
video stills from Kaya Behkalam's Tehran Reflections, 2005 courtesy Ellipse Arts Center
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