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Artwork Description

Shadi Ghadirian (Tehran, 1974) is one of the most significant Middle Eastern photographers of our time. Her work explores an Iran of contrasts and paradoxes, teetering between modernity and tradition. Reflections on female identity, the ghosts of bloody conflicts (such as the Iran-Iraq War), and the ambivalence of a society constantly and precariously struggling between freedom and censorship are only some of the themes that Shadi Ghadirian examines with her unique expressive imprint. A private reflection on the feminine question and at the same time the audacity to challenge Iranian ambivalences is found in the work Be Colourful from 2002. In this series, surprisingly we manage to distinguish the faces of the women, we can even make out the hands, but our apparent conquest is quickly quashed, because the subjects are portrayed behind partially opaque paint streaked panes of glass, which are in places even blacked out. Once again between the spectator and the subject, Ghadirian has positioned a visible obstacle, an obstruction that does not allow us to fully participate in the scene. The women on the other side of the glass come forward or move, as if in a silent and charming dance. Immediately we are reminded of the title, it seems an advice, be colourful, be imaginative, alive, always and anyway.