Air Pollution of IRAN

2004-2006 -Air Pollution of Iran (8 flags, 240x120x5cm each) -Anonymous Martyrs (3 cameras) -Military service under the flag (single-channel video in peep-hole, 5 min loop) Air Pollution of Iran addresses the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners by the government of the Islamic Republic, which took place over a short period of a few days in 1988 shortly before the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Few are aware of them, no one is allowed to talk about them or remember them. During my first and only visit to the burial site, I was confronted by the shock of the flat, anonymous ground (no names, no gravestones) scattered only with flowers brought by families in remembrance of their lost ones. They victims are buried in a massive hole dug in the middle of nowhere and filled with corpses. Following that I started a project entitled: Air Pollution of Iran which is a series comprising of three works: The first - Air Pollution of Iran - is a series of eight found and framed national flags of Iran. The grimy flag is a rather direct allegory of the dirty reality we actually live in, even if we do not see it, much like the undeniable reality of the air pollution of Tehran. The air-soiled flags of Tehran now seem to me to preserve the inherent dirt which is not only from pollution but goes deep into the dirty reality underneath. The second - Anonymous Martyr - comprises of three slide viewers souvenirs obtained from holy pigrimmage sites like Mecca and remodelled with slides representing a ritualistic re-enactment of a funeral service for the executed political prisoners. Bodies were wrapped in the national flag and placed in large dug holes akin to thr mass grave and photographed. The images replaced those inside the slide viewers which originally hold images of holy sites. The third - Military Service under Flag - is a single channel video approximately 6 minutes long displayed through a peep hole. The video is a close up view of my mouth eating a watermelon and smoking a cigarette with a national flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the background. I put myself in the place of a soldier in the military who serves under the flag albeit what I do is nonsense.

Anonymous martyrs

Military service under the flag (video in peep-hole)

Original slide in cameras: pictures of holy places

Slide shown at the exhibition: anonymous martyrs

Jesus
2007 Single-channel video, silent, running time; 10 minutes and 14 seconds. Jesus is a video assemblage of 8000 digital photographs of Seoul superimposed by a text. The work animates still images of red neon Christian crosses aloft buildings and along the Korean urban skyline recorded at different times of day, across various shutter speeds and lights. The changing light brings the red neon lights in and out of emphasis. The project was made during a residency in Seoul when the artist became intensely aware of the domineering presence of the symbol across and against the urban landscape. The work explores religious iconography as advertising in an urban dimension and references parallel iconographic containments and regulatory directorials within contemporary Iranian narrative. Email explorations of the topic of the Korean neon Christian cross by the artist and the residency director appear across the work which makes the video into a kind of visual email. The Christian cross began to preside as an urban feature in the aftermath of WWII and the Korean War through Christian missionary activities in South Korea where a considerable proportion of the population converted to Christianity. By association the neon icons embody American/missionary presence.

Solo Show (Namayeshgah-e-Enferadi)

Performance 2007 As a play on words the Persian term enferadi meaning solo/solitary is used here to reference solo show-solitary confinement. The artist enters the gallery a few minutes after the opening hour, obstructs the entrance locks himself in alone and out of sight and stays solitary and out of view for the duration of the one week show. The audience follow the show through the mediation of digital images uploaded daily by the artist on his website.

Untitle(from:Rose Garden)
2008

Untitled (From: Rose Garden) 2008 Untitled (From: Rose Garden) is a collection of sixty-four photographic images of various flowers in different colours photographed against a black background on postcards. The name of the flower, date and place of photography are printed beside the image. A pair of flowers were photographed each night over a period of four months. The postcards imitate commercial postcards. The work is a form of visual diary. Floral images stand in as substitutes for the unrecorded real feelings, a parody, both an escape and an avoidance of the dreadful reality of the contemporary condition and its social and political narratives. It is a comment on a general conditioning to avoid or conceal the ugly realities, a conditioning both wrought by psychological defenses as well as official controls. The image of the beautiful flower instead becomes the delightful daily dose of beauty.

Tulips Rise from the Blood of the Nation Youth

Industrial Revolution Series 2008 Group of 8 sculptures in Neon, Tinplate, Wood, Plastick, Electric engine 135 X 35 X 30 cm each sculptures

Tulips riseis a famous song for Constitutional Revolution (Mashrote Revollution) in Iran at 1908. The song became so famous after Islamic revolution especially during the 8years war between Iran and Iraq (1980-1988). Tulips became a symbol for the revolution, similar to the sign; Allah has been used in the middle of Islamic Republic of Irans flag. There has neon tulips installed on tinplate pedestals referring to the monuments which one can see in numerous public places such as town squares in Iran. The bottoms emplaced on pedestals enable the viewers to make the tulips turn as well as change the direction and speed of turning!

Onion Grinder

Industrial Revolution Series 2008 Wood, Silver, Tinplate, Electric Engine 113.41.41 cm. each sculpture

Onion Grinder is literally an everyday onion grinder mounted an a pedestal base of tin plate. It has an external multi-speed power switch attached to the base that allows the viewer manipulation of the action and speed and rotational direction of the grinder blade. The six-leaved silver blade is in the form of the official emblem of the Iranian republic as it appears on the flag, spelling Allah, here expanded into 3-dimensions. The sculpture is accompanied by an instruction manual.

Mother of Nation
Industrial Revolution Series 2008-2009

Mother of Nation is a composite tinplate and metal sculpture of part-pyramidal form surmounted by a meat grinder. With the turn of the handle, the mechanically-operated meat grinder sucks up a dark oily fluid mixture from a lower reservoir through a small pipe, pushes it through a pacifier and ejects it to squirt down the front of the stepped tin skirt structure. The solitary, manipulated, abused, soiled, injured, exposed and only partially intact monument is an allegory of the nurturing/controlling mother (with her single-sided thin skirt of sheet tin) and the dependency relationship with natural reserves in the context of the national/global politico-economic dimensions of fuel energies.

Sunsets
2010

Sunsets is an installation of Tinplate tubes and fourty loudspeakers forming a structure of 4 cubic metres?? creating a freestanding three-dimensional organ-like structure with a rotating turntable of speakers underneath. The speakers broacast different Quranic chapters simulateneously, orchestrating a hybrid reading of the Quran. By rotating the speaker turntable the spectator can shift the emphasis and control the soundscape as the speakers move underneath different tubes of the organ above. As a monument, the piece sits somewhere between a toy and portable religious medium for prayer, revealing sounds of daily life as perceived in a religious country. Furthermore, avoiding direct referenc, it takes an oblique position in relation to the political landscape where symbols and motives are overloaded with meaning and official status. As each speaker in the installation emits a different chapter of Quran and visitors are invited to rotate the speakers which are installed on a circular disc as a merry-go-around to form various sonic experiences. With this interactive element, the artist playfully allows unpredictable and flexible alternative readings in opposition to rigid interpretation. These Quranic chapters are recited before each prayer and punblicly broadcast before each call to prayer across the cities as well as during Moslem religious ceremonies. The artist recycles and distorts religious (and in other instances nationalistic) popular motifs.

Bahman Cinema
2010 4 Channel Video, Cartons of Cigarettes, 46.32.30 CM, Cardboard

Bahman Cinema is an installation piece addressing the interrelation between culture and the circumstances within the social context. The piece is including four empty carton cigarettes put up on the wall. There is a single-channel video has been shown in each box, with tens of miniature chairs in front, as one would find himself looking down on a small-scale cinema. Bahman is the eleventh month in the solar calendar, and the victory month of Islamic Republic of Iran Revolution in 1979. In one hand it is referring to Bahamn Cigarette, a quite popular Iranian cigarette among worker class people and also there is a real Bahman Cinema in Enghelab (revolution) square, right in the midtown, Tehran. This area has been facing many protests before and after the Islamic revolution. Connecting these metaphoric factors turn up in the videos come along by a revolutionary song. Videos - actually the main parts of the piece- are short (40sec.-1.55min) documentaries of the streets between Tehran University and Revolution square. Bearing in mind this area is one of the busiest places in Tehran for the protests, specially the latest one after the presidential election, this video recorded at night time shows a very quiet angle in comparison. These bare streets are hinting the viewer how this busy area became considerably tranquil. Sadness, emptiness, and hopelessness are all over the images fulfilled by the leading song. Each video has been named after a part of the song hearing all through, based on a true story composed to a martyr warier Mohammad Jahan Ara during IranIraq war (1980-1988). He was one the most important elements in liberating Khoram-Shahr city which had been occupied by Iraqis for a while. Mammad had been killed before the city was completely sat free and the song is retelling the story to his comrades as a recital of an elegy. Mammad you were not around to see, The city is liberated The selected parts of the song are comparing that atmosphere by Irans at the present time. One or two phrase is getting repeated on and on to remind that the same stories are repeating themselves during the time. It seems that artist sharing this experience with all Jahan Aras comrades which symbolically stand for protesters of today Iran. Your comrades blood You are gone and comrades will follow you All my hopes are vanished Ah, such a pity it is