DOI Artikel:
Inglot, Joanna: Trans-cultural dialogues in the art of Iranian Diaspora: Shirin Neshat and Parastou Forouhar
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34225#0086
80
JOANNA INGLOT
Forouhar in iega! proceedings against specific factions of the Iranian govemment), reveaied that these
brutai kiHings were part of a series of murders of dissident intellectuals carried out by Iranian government
operatives between 1988 and 1998. The victims included more than eighty writers, translators, poets,
political activists, and other citizens. The pattem of these murders came to light in 1998, when Forouhar's
parents and three other dissident writers were murdered within a span of two months^. Her personal
tragedy and her ceasetess efforts to investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice became
a motivating force in her work, widely interpreted as a bold protest against socia) and political oppression
and a fearless exposure of the abuses and violence of the Iranian regime.
7?p<7 Zs Afy Abwa, G?^^?? A ATp Ab?77e 7 (2007) (Fig. 5, 6) is a series of eight digital drawings that
powerfully address this subject. Drawing on the Persian tradition of miniature and ornament, the works
are filled with intricate detail and brilliantly colored pattems, obsessively meticulous in their regularity
and multiplication of form. Printed tightly within a grid, the rhythmic designs mingle like the patterns
of a kaleidoscope, captivating with their dazzling symmetries and the implied harmonious order. Yet
the harmless beauty of the omament is disrupted when we recognize that these pattems are composed
of instruments of torture-whips, knives, scissors, pliers, and pistols. The design of these works derives
from traditional Iranian fabric pattems used in Shiite mouming rituals on the day of Ashura, the annual
inemorial for the venerated Shiite martyr Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Marchers
who fHI the streets on that day carry black, green, and red banners (representing the colors of the Iranian
flag along with the traditional black of grief) and beat their bodies with bare hands and iron chains in
commemoration of their spiritual leader, who was decapitated and mutilated in a war waged by the Sunni
caliph Yazid in the Battle of Karbala (Iraq) in 680 A.D. The tragedy of Karbala - a central theme of
Shiite martyrology - has been integrated into popular Islamic rituals, the iconography of modem Iranian
art, and popular drama known as ЛзЬ/е/? (Passion play), performed during Muharram, the month when
Iman Hussein and his family were slaughtered^. A ATp Ab?77e, Gree?? A AFp Abwe acknowledges
the long history of bloodshed and violence in Iran, while the digital manipulation of the prints links this
tradition to the present. Other drawings in the series feature stylized male and female genitalia arranged
like flowers on Persian carpets or ceramic tiles, evoking sexual abuse and rape and acting as symbols of
organized political violence by the oppressive Iranian regime, which undoubtedly also reference Forouhar's
personal tragedy and her political protest.
In И ТУ7077Л(27?(7 <T77<7 0?7<? (2003-2012), a large multi-media project consisting of digital drawings,
flipbooks, balloons, wallpaper, and animations, Forouhar depicts equally violent scenarios. A subversive
twist on the one thousand and one nights of the HL067077 ATgbA, all of the works in the series show
faceless figures enacting scenes of torture. In digital drawings, for instance, the silhouetted pink bodies
that emerge from symmetrical yet irregular black patterns (reminiscent of Rorschach inkblot tests) are
interlaced with but also strangled by the meandering elegant arabesque lines resembling the characters in
Persian calligraphy (Fig. 7, 8, 9, 10). Yet, while the stylistic and iconographic elements link these works
to the Persian past, and the content alludes to abuses in contemporary Iran, the piles of naked bodies,
blindfolds, and leashes also bring to mind images and accounts of violence and torture that circulated
in the media after the revelations in 2004 of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and in other U.S.-run
prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, revealing violence embedded in all structures of power.
The computerized animations that are part of the installation, allow the viewer to switch back and forth
between the role of victim and perpetrator, with the click of a mouse. Forouhar uses similar techniques
in her small flipbooks and hundreds of white and pink helium balloons with printed images of torture
(Fig. 11). She invites the audience to set in motion these criminal acts with our own hands, implicating
all of us in these horrific acts.
In their cropping, coloring, and serial repetition, Forouhar's works bring to mind Pop images by Andy
Warhol, especially his "Death Series" from the early 1960s, which desymbolize the subject, emptying it
-1 J. Ingiot, Or??owg7?7 o7?(V Cr?'?77g.' fa/YMTo?? FowM/?<7?*, exh. cat., St. Paul, MN: Law Warschaw Gallery, 3. See also documents
relating to the investigation into the politically motivated murders of Dariush and Parwaneh Forouhar <http://www.parastou-forouhar.de/
engIish/Documents-Parwaneh-and-Dariush-Forouhar.htmI>
22 M. Moallem, ÆeTwee?? 1%77т?'от- /??*о?/?ет* от?(/ Ie?7er/ NAte?*; A/o77??'c №?7(/о77?е777о/м7?? o?7(/ ?/?e Ро/т'Р'сл рбРо^/ат-с/т m /т-о??,
Berkeley: University of Califomia Press, 2005, p. 97.
JOANNA INGLOT
Forouhar in iega! proceedings against specific factions of the Iranian govemment), reveaied that these
brutai kiHings were part of a series of murders of dissident intellectuals carried out by Iranian government
operatives between 1988 and 1998. The victims included more than eighty writers, translators, poets,
political activists, and other citizens. The pattem of these murders came to light in 1998, when Forouhar's
parents and three other dissident writers were murdered within a span of two months^. Her personal
tragedy and her ceasetess efforts to investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice became
a motivating force in her work, widely interpreted as a bold protest against socia) and political oppression
and a fearless exposure of the abuses and violence of the Iranian regime.
7?p<7 Zs Afy Abwa, G?^^?? A ATp Ab?77e 7 (2007) (Fig. 5, 6) is a series of eight digital drawings that
powerfully address this subject. Drawing on the Persian tradition of miniature and ornament, the works
are filled with intricate detail and brilliantly colored pattems, obsessively meticulous in their regularity
and multiplication of form. Printed tightly within a grid, the rhythmic designs mingle like the patterns
of a kaleidoscope, captivating with their dazzling symmetries and the implied harmonious order. Yet
the harmless beauty of the omament is disrupted when we recognize that these pattems are composed
of instruments of torture-whips, knives, scissors, pliers, and pistols. The design of these works derives
from traditional Iranian fabric pattems used in Shiite mouming rituals on the day of Ashura, the annual
inemorial for the venerated Shiite martyr Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Marchers
who fHI the streets on that day carry black, green, and red banners (representing the colors of the Iranian
flag along with the traditional black of grief) and beat their bodies with bare hands and iron chains in
commemoration of their spiritual leader, who was decapitated and mutilated in a war waged by the Sunni
caliph Yazid in the Battle of Karbala (Iraq) in 680 A.D. The tragedy of Karbala - a central theme of
Shiite martyrology - has been integrated into popular Islamic rituals, the iconography of modem Iranian
art, and popular drama known as ЛзЬ/е/? (Passion play), performed during Muharram, the month when
Iman Hussein and his family were slaughtered^. A ATp Ab?77e, Gree?? A AFp Abwe acknowledges
the long history of bloodshed and violence in Iran, while the digital manipulation of the prints links this
tradition to the present. Other drawings in the series feature stylized male and female genitalia arranged
like flowers on Persian carpets or ceramic tiles, evoking sexual abuse and rape and acting as symbols of
organized political violence by the oppressive Iranian regime, which undoubtedly also reference Forouhar's
personal tragedy and her political protest.
In И ТУ7077Л(27?(7 <T77<7 0?7<? (2003-2012), a large multi-media project consisting of digital drawings,
flipbooks, balloons, wallpaper, and animations, Forouhar depicts equally violent scenarios. A subversive
twist on the one thousand and one nights of the HL067077 ATgbA, all of the works in the series show
faceless figures enacting scenes of torture. In digital drawings, for instance, the silhouetted pink bodies
that emerge from symmetrical yet irregular black patterns (reminiscent of Rorschach inkblot tests) are
interlaced with but also strangled by the meandering elegant arabesque lines resembling the characters in
Persian calligraphy (Fig. 7, 8, 9, 10). Yet, while the stylistic and iconographic elements link these works
to the Persian past, and the content alludes to abuses in contemporary Iran, the piles of naked bodies,
blindfolds, and leashes also bring to mind images and accounts of violence and torture that circulated
in the media after the revelations in 2004 of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and in other U.S.-run
prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, revealing violence embedded in all structures of power.
The computerized animations that are part of the installation, allow the viewer to switch back and forth
between the role of victim and perpetrator, with the click of a mouse. Forouhar uses similar techniques
in her small flipbooks and hundreds of white and pink helium balloons with printed images of torture
(Fig. 11). She invites the audience to set in motion these criminal acts with our own hands, implicating
all of us in these horrific acts.
In their cropping, coloring, and serial repetition, Forouhar's works bring to mind Pop images by Andy
Warhol, especially his "Death Series" from the early 1960s, which desymbolize the subject, emptying it
-1 J. Ingiot, Or??owg7?7 o7?(V Cr?'?77g.' fa/YMTo?? FowM/?<7?*, exh. cat., St. Paul, MN: Law Warschaw Gallery, 3. See also documents
relating to the investigation into the politically motivated murders of Dariush and Parwaneh Forouhar <http://www.parastou-forouhar.de/
engIish/Documents-Parwaneh-and-Dariush-Forouhar.htmI>
22 M. Moallem, ÆeTwee?? 1%77т?'от- /??*о?/?ет* от?(/ Ie?7er/ NAte?*; A/o77??'c №?7(/о77?е777о/м7?? o?7(/ ?/?e Ро/т'Р'сл рбРо^/ат-с/т m /т-о??,
Berkeley: University of Califomia Press, 2005, p. 97.