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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. In the series Miss Butterfly from 2011 the artist concentrates on the delicate theme of freedom, or the perception of an emotive prison. These evocative photographs in black and white portray women inside solitary domestic settings as they weave spider webs. The interplay of the dim lighting and the perception of isolation become palpable. We are almost enveloped by the silent tension which at the same time both fascinates us and makes us vulnerable. Created during the difficult elections of 2010 and the protests that followed them, protests which broke out throughout the country, the series was inspired by an ancient Iranian fairy tale, Miss Butterfly, which Shadi Ghadirian used to tell her young daughter. The fairy tale reminds us of some difficult social dynamics and the dangerous controls that the artist herself lived through during those months, a period marked by her worries for her friends who had either escaped into exile or were imprisoned. “Miss Butterfly wants to meet the sun, but while searching for a route to the light, she ends up in a spider web. The spider, moved by the grace and delicacy of Miss Butterfly, decides to propose an pact. He will lead her toward the light if in exchange the butterfly will bring him one of the insects hidden in the dark basement. After having listened to all the stories of the insects in the basement, Miss Butterfly feels pity for them and, with her wounded wings, returns to the spider empty-handed, to offer herself up as a prisoner. Struck by this great courage, the spider decides to free her, showing her the route toward the light. Happy for this concession, the butterfly calls to all the insects in the basement to share with them the joy of freedom, but these later don’t answer her. Embittered and frustrated by this reaction, Miss Butterfly then opens her great wounded and tired wings, and flies by herself toward the sun.”