Justice for Iran

In solidarity with the beautiful and courageous people of Iran.

You can find me at Kateoplis.

criterioncorner:

Up Close & Personal: #612 CERTIFIED COPY (dir. Abbas Kiarostami) 2010

Certified Copy is one of the best films ever made (and yet, not quite my favorite Kiarostami). the inside of Criterion’s blu-ray could have been made out of wet industrial cardboard and i still would have been ecstatic to have it. fortunately for us all, it’s made out of dry industrial cardboard the simple package contains a lovely essay and some simple but deeply evocative design choices. 

Criterion will release their edition of Certified Copy on dvd & blu-ray on May 22, 2012.

manpodcast: Shirin Neshat, Ramin, 2012. This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features New York-based artist Shirin Neshat, who joins me to discuss the art she’s made in response to Iran’s Green Revolution and to the Arab Spring. “The Book of Kings,” an exhibition of Neshat’s work is on view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York through February 11. A detail from Neshat’s My House is Burning Down (2012) is featured in this week’s banner.  Neshat has been the subject of major survey exhibitions at museums in Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Mexico, Canada and the United States. Among many other honors, she won the Silver Lion at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival for “Women Without Men” and the First International Award at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Next year the Detroit Institute of Arts will present a major retrospective of her work. To download or subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, click here. To download the program directly, click here. To subscribe to The MAN Podcast’s RSS feed, click here. You can stream the program through the player below. In our conversation Neshat and I discuss: The passion she feels for her homeland of Iran even after having lived abroad for 37 years; The challenges inherent in making art for audiences in Iran and the Middle East when Neshat lives and shows in the West; The ways in which her art is seen in Iran today; How the uprisings in the Persian and Arab worlds motivated her newest work; and Why metaphor is such an important strategy for her. […] For images of the works discussed on this week’s program, click here. More Neshat.

manpodcast:

Shirin Neshat, Ramin, 2012.

This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features New York-based artist Shirin Neshat, who joins me to discuss the art she’s made in response to Iran’s Green Revolution and to the Arab Spring. “The Book of Kings,” an exhibition of Neshat’s work is on view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York through February 11. A detail from Neshat’s My House is Burning Down (2012) is featured in this week’s banner. 

Neshat has been the subject of major survey exhibitions at museums in Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Mexico, Canada and the United States. Among many other honors, she won the Silver Lion at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival for “Women Without Men” and the First International Award at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Next year the Detroit Institute of Arts will present a major retrospective of her work.

To download or subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, click here. To download the program directly, click here. To subscribe to The MAN Podcast’s RSS feed, click here. You can stream the program through the player below.

In our conversation Neshat and I discuss:

  • The passion she feels for her homeland of Iran even after having lived abroad for 37 years;
  • The challenges inherent in making art for audiences in Iran and the Middle East when Neshat lives and shows in the West;
  • The ways in which her art is seen in Iran today;
  • How the uprisings in the Persian and Arab worlds motivated her newest work; and
  • Why metaphor is such an important strategy for her. […]

For images of the works discussed on this week’s program, click here.

More Neshat.

(via 3rdofmay)

By 23 year-old Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, Kiana Hayeri From the NYT: Q: How was this picture taken? A: It’s part of an unfinished project called “Your Veil Is a Battleground.” In Iran, there are a lot of restrictions about how you dress and how you interact with the opposite sex. I started following these girls who are always trying to push their head scarves back a little bit, or put on a bit more makeup. […] The whole summer I was in Iran, I was working on this project. This photo was shot in the north. For me, it was very nerve-racking. Morality police were marching through the streets, but the girls were pretty relaxed. They’re always risking being fined, being detained for a day or two, or sometimes even being lashed. Read on.

By 23 year-old Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, Kiana Hayeri

From the NYT:

Q: How was this picture taken?

A: It’s part of an unfinished project called “Your Veil Is a Battleground.” In Iran, there are a lot of restrictions about how you dress and how you interact with the opposite sex. I started following these girls who are always trying to push their head scarves back a little bit, or put on a bit more makeup. […]

The whole summer I was in Iran, I was working on this project. This photo was shot in the north. For me, it was very nerve-racking. Morality police were marching through the streets, but the girls were pretty relaxed. They’re always risking being fined, being detained for a day or two, or sometimes even being lashed.

Read on.

Bad Girls série by Bahar Sabzevari from Robert Adanto’s new documentary Pearls on the Ocean Floor (video) Pearls on the Ocean Floor is a thought-provoking documentary that examines the lives and works of Iranian female artists living and working in and outside the Islamic Republic. This unflinching and incisive study, featuring interviews with art luminaries Shadi Ghadirian, Shirin Neshat, Parastou Forouhar, Gohar Dashti (video) and others, captures the uncertainty of this momentous time in Iran’s history. Speaking with grace and honesty, these brave women express what is seldom seen in the western media: unique individual perspectives regarding issues of identity, gender, and the role that art plays in challenging the traditional stereotypes often associated with women in Iran. - Steve Nalepa From the film’s website: There is no better time than the present to examine this fascinating nation and no better approach than through the visual imagery of female artists. It is women who have collectively bore the brunt of an oppressive regime and the bias of a western media that has repeatedly constructed one-dimensional images portraying them as humorless, repressed, second-class citizens in black chadors. Pearls on the Ocean Floor challenges this stereotype and caricature obscuring the vibrant and robust culture in Iran and its diaspora.

Bad Girls série by Bahar Sabzevari from Robert Adanto’s new documentary Pearls on the Ocean Floor (video)

Pearls on the Ocean Floor is a thought-provoking documentary that examines the lives and works of Iranian female artists living and working in and outside the Islamic Republic. This unflinching and incisive study, featuring interviews with art luminaries Shadi Ghadirian, Shirin Neshat, Parastou Forouhar, Gohar Dashti (video) and others, captures the uncertainty of this momentous time in Iran’s history. Speaking with grace and honesty, these brave women express what is seldom seen in the western media: unique individual perspectives regarding issues of identity, gender, and the role that art plays in challenging the traditional stereotypes often associated with women in Iran. - Steve Nalepa

From the film’s website:

There is no better time than the present to examine this fascinating nation and no better approach than through the visual imagery of female artists. It is women who have collectively bore the brunt of an oppressive regime and the bias of a western media that has repeatedly constructed one-dimensional images portraying them as humorless, repressed, second-class citizens in black chadors. Pearls on the Ocean Floor challenges this stereotype and caricature obscuring the vibrant and robust culture in Iran and its diaspora.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

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Our dear friend, Abbas Milani, repeating the sentiment of every Iranian. Thank you, NPR.

npr:

“When I still hear it, I get a chill to my bone and think that this is not the voice of a mere mortal — this is the gods speaking to us.”

- Iranian-American scholar Abbas Milani, discussing the voice of Iranian singer Mohammed Reza Shajarian