Showcasing Contemporary Iranian Photo-Based Art: A Critical Account (original) (raw)

2017, Contemporary Iranian Photography: Five Perspectives

Abstract

sparkles

AI

This article provides a critical overview of contemporary Iranian photo-based art, highlighting the tendency of exhibitions to focus on ethnocultural and political identity markers. It discusses how these events often essentialize cultural views and reduce artists' works to geopolitical concepts, neglecting the artists' context and lived experiences. The piece explores the implications of these practices within international exhibition structures, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced understanding of Iranian art that transcends stereotypes and engages with the complexities of cultural and political narratives.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (10)

  1. Plate 13, Abbas Kowsari, Uromiyeh Lake, from the Shade of Water series, 2008, digital pho- tography, C-type print, edition of 5, 70 × 105 cm., courtesy of the artist. Plate 12, Abbas Kowsari, Uromiyeh Lake, from the Shade of Water series, 2008, digital pho- tography, C-type print, edition of 5, 70 × 105 cm., courtesy of the artist.
  2. I am very grateful to Simin Dehghani for her help with obtaining high resolution images for this article.
  3. See Sussan Babaei, "Voices of Authority: Locat- ing the 'Modern' in 'Islamic' Arts", Getty Research Journal 3 (2011), pp. 133-49.
  4. For a comprehensive account of this theme, see Hamid Keshmirshekan, "The Question of Identity vis-à-vis Exoticism in Contemporary Iranian Art", Iranian Studies 43: 4 (September 2010), pp. 489-512.
  5. Graham Huggan, "The Postcolonial Exotic," in the The Postcolonial Studies Reader, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths… (London and New York: Rout- ledge), 2008, pp. 423-4.
  6. For further study of this term, see Hamid Kesh- mirshekan, "Neo-traditionalism and Modern Iranian Painting: The Saqqa-khaneh School in the 1960s," Iranian Studies 38: IV (December 2005), pp. 607-30.
  7. Graham Huggan, "The Postcolonial Exotic," in The Postcolonial Studies Reader, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Ga- reth Griffiths…(London and New York: Routledge), 2008, p. 424.
  8. Ibid.
  9. Ibid.
  10. Homi K Bhabha, "Postmodernism/Postcolonial- ism," in Critical Terms for Art History, eds. Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), p. 450.