Recently I attended a Gen Art reception for the show Iran Inside Out at the Chelsea Art Museum. To be honest I usually attend these events for free drinks and to socialize. Not because I don’t love art, but because much of what passes for art are pieces that are highly conceptual but poorly rendered or have great craftsmanship but nothing more. So it was a wonderful surprise to view an exhibition with such complexity and timeliness of the work on both a pop art, fine art and political commentary level. Thus the reason I’m writing a musing about this is because I loved it. Since it runs until September 6th I encourage anyone who hasn’t seen it to check it out. Iran Inside Out is the 2nd of 3 exhibits in a series dealing with East/West. (The final one will be about the Berlin Wall and it's fall)Meant to be commemorating the 30th anniversary of the revolution, it has been made all the more potent by the spontaneous protests that erupted at the same time and continually potentially undermine the current regime. The 56 artists in the exhibition represent the younger generation of Iranian artists both from within and outside of Iran, and the exhibit is divided into five sections which touch on current cultural interests and obsessions with names such as “From Iran to Queeran and Everything in Between” and “In Search of the Axis of Evil: On War and Politics”. I had the good fortune of meeting Hanna Azemati, who volunteers for the museum and offered me a personal tour explaining discussing works with me while offering up cultural trivia. (One note of interest: homosexuality is illegal in Iran yet they offer 6,000 sex change permits per year because they believe they are “fixing” gay people.)
I obviously can’t cover all the works but here are a select few that I really liked: Shopping Malls of Tehran by Saghar Daeeri (image Courtesy of the Artist and Aaran Gallery, Tehran). Reminiscent stylistically of Otto Dix, it shows the highly exaggerated to the point of vulgarity expression of femininity such as the long nails and highly arched eyebrows that are the result of women’s overcompensating for being forbidden from expressing their femininity in the public sphere.
Oil Barrels by Shiva Ahmadi (image Oil Barrel #6 Oil on steel, Courtesy of Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery) is another work that I really responded to. Using actual oil barrels, Ahmadi decorated them in a traditional style based on Persian miniature paintings. She then proceeded to gouge holes into them creating bullet like wounds and painting headless horses at war with one another bleeding out of them. The effect is both beautiful and grotesque.
I was initially attracted to this sculpture because of its colors and shape. Entitled SmartFilter2, Twice As Bad by Pooneh Maghazehe, it is made out of gold elastic and 1000 o.b. brand tampons. The use of the tampons as a material would make it “morally unsuitable” for public view in Iran. Nevertheless the material was used more for the materiality than to make a feminist statement. It attempts to grapple with the issues of institutional power, censorship and conformity by specific color coding related to censorship on the internet in Iran.These are just a few of the works in the show. In addition to the exhibition there will be a Contemporary ballet performance by Cedar Lake with live music performed by Reza Derakshani
on September 1-3 at 7:30 pm and an open rehearsal prior on August 27th from 6-8 pm.
The description from the website:
A spectacular contemporary ballet performance by Cedar Lake based on Iran Inside Out. Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer creates a new performance experience interpreting the artworks exhibited in Iran Inside Out. Using the visual artworks as points of inspiration, the collaboration will incorporate movement, art and live music by Iranian visual and performance artist Reza Derakshani, whose paintings are also included in the Iran Inside Out exhibition. Cedar Lake is a contemporary ballet company dedicated to the development of dance by providing choreographers a comprehensive environment for creation.
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