Iranian art in Dubai

Iranian art in Dubai

Khosrow Hassanzadeh

From billboards to newspapers, banquet halls to shopfronts, there’s one ubiquitous selling point that adorns the streets of Tehran: ‘Ready to order’. It’s a hook that says ‘we commission, we take orders’ – it lets people know that they will have their lavishness, be it banquet or ornament, tailored to create their own token of affluence.  Or so Khosrow Hassanzadeh sees it. Inspired by the small boxes found in the tombs of martyrs and at the birthplace of martyrs, Hassanzadeh has created a collection of his own ready-to-order boxes that celebrate those who he sees as unrecognised subjects. Beginning with his mother, then himself, Hassanzadeh eventually frames Googoosh, the Persian singing diva, into one of his boxes. Rendering his subjects in cardboard, the artist then surrounds them with a vast selection of kitsch items, flashing lights, trinket statuettes, plastic flowers and other items specific to his subject. He sees these works as shrines, handmade and exaggerated celebrations of each subject that flash with a humorous half-eye look at kitsch conceptions of beauty.  B21 also presents a number of works in Hassanzadeh’s Ya Ali Madadi series, a selection of acrylic works painted directly onto silk. Taking its name from the prayer of supplication to Ali, made by Pahlavan wrestlers before a match, the works explore the heroism of these wrestlers, weaving their bodies in calligraphy and formed in deep, distinctly Persian colours.

Feature – Khosrow Hassanzadeh

http://www.timeoutdubai.com/dubai/features/review.php?id=4173

Khosrow Hassanzadeh

By Chris Lord, November 2008

Or so Khosrow Hassanzadeh sees it. Inspired by the small boxes found in the tombs of martyrs and at the birthplace of martyrs, Hassanzadeh has created a collection of his own ready-to-order boxes that celebrate those who he sees as unrecognised subjects. Beginning with his mother, then himself, Hassanzadeh eventually frames Googoosh, the Persian singing diva, into one of his boxes. Rendering his subjects in cardboard, the artist then surrounds them with a vast selection of kitsch items, flashing lights, trinket statuettes, plastic flowers and other items specific to his subject. He sees these works as shrines, handmade and exaggerated celebrations of each subject that flash with a humorous half-eye look at kitsch conceptions of beauty.

B21 also presents a number of works in Hassanzadeh’s Ya Ali Madadi series, a selection of acrylic works painted directly onto silk. Taking its name from the prayer of supplication to Ali, made by Pahlavan wrestlers before a match, the works explore the heroism of these wrestlers, weaving their bodies in calligraphy and formed in deep, distinctly Persian colours.

One of Iran’s most exciting and switched on contemporary artists, this is a varied show that demonstrates Hassanzadeh’s love for and humorous take on Iranian culture.

B21 (04 340 3965), Al Quoz 1. November 11-December 11

1) What was it that inspired you to work on each?

a) Ready to Order

My initial inspiration for this series was from the small boxes found in the holy birthplaces of Imams and the tombs of martyrs. The title of this collection refers to the magnificence and glory of day-to-day life. People in Iran are constantly being invited to commission lavish banquets for birthdays and weddings, memorials for lost loved ones and religious martyrs and so on. You can see ‘ready to order’ on banners at the entrance of common restaurants, hospitality halls of the city and in advertisements in daily newspapers. Instead of using religious men or martyrs, I used popular people; my mum and kids, the famous Pahlavan and pop stars. I wanted to pay tribute to them all.

b) Ya Madad Ali

Ali is the first Imam in the Shia tradition. He was a strong and humble man, famous for helping poor. He is the Imam of the Pahlavan and they revere his sword, the Khyber. In Iran, when people need help they say ‘Ya Ali Madad’, the calligraphy in the paintings, the letters dance and whirl like Sufi dervishes. The screen print is from an old photo of Pahlavan holding hands on either side of them are a court intellectual, a Dervish, a General and Mullah. The Pahlavan represent many aspects of Iranian culture that we are loosing today. In the Ya Ali Madad series I want to remind people of their beauty, strength and honour.

2) Can you elaborate on the creative process you embarked on for these two series?

I never framed my work before, this time I wanted to make big kitch heavy frames. The frame is a concept, to make the people inside proud and celebrated. I went all over downtown Tehran collecting things to place around the subjects. Each subject has very different character and I choose things very carefully according to what I felt they would want to represent them or things that would be meaningful to them. I made portraits multli-layered in the same fashion as a portrait technique from small shops selling pictures of the Imans or historical people in Iran.

I used old photographs from 70 years ago and screen-printed them in many layers with painting and calligraphy. I used the name of Ali again and again, painting these pictures I felt I was like dervish dancing with my paintbrush.

3) After the terrorist series (2002), you have come up with these two series after a long gap. Why so….

Terrorist was 2004, after this I made a project, Bache Mahal 2006, about propaganda murals and shahid paintings and I have been working on ready to order for 2 years, and Ya Madad for one year also. There have not really been any breaks in my work. I have been very busy traveling and exhibiting my work. (Please see attached CV)

4) How do you relate your ‘ready to order’ series with ‘kitsch’? (Very important question – in detail)

“Ready to Order” is by its name about kitch. Ready to order is Iranian business about kitch, showing and ceremony. For example, wedding cakes, dresses and banquets, murals and memorabilia for people who have passed away or banners for people for people returning from hajj. Kitch is label that is imposed on what is loved and desired by the majority of normal people in Iran, it is an expression of popular humanity. It is a wonderful, joyful resistance.

5) What is the principle overriding inspiration that goes pretty much in your work?

I am from downtown Tehran. I have always chosen to make my work about the subjects that are closest to me for the popular people of Iran. I love the richness of my culture and traditions and I embrace the often surprising and humorous way in which they penetrate and express themselves in contemporary society.

Iran is a deeply visual country, life is written and painted all around me in everyday local things and street life. I always use popular mediums and materials; silk screen, painting, collage, cheap paper.

My work is always about the unknown people because I believe in their importance and sacrifice; I believe they are the root and solution to everything.

6) To what extent your Iranian background especially the period as a frontline soldier during the Iran-Iraq war inspires and ignites the themes in your work?

Ready to Order is a continuation of my war series, black and white paintings of confusion and nightmares, now I have turned to colour and flashing lights, because the same people who suffered in the war express their pride to be martyrs and to be alive in all of this kitsch glory.

The Art of Confrontation

In 2006 the Tropenmuseum organized an overview of the works of visual artist Khosrow Hassanzadeh, whose work also features in the British Museum collection. Hassanzadeh’s artworks are largely figurative and treat subjects as diverse as the Iran-Iraq war, murdered prostitutes and the Western image of Iran. Although most of his work comments on social realities set specifically in Iran, Hassanzadeh is wary of being framed as a representative of his homeland, a position he shares with many artists of Middle Eastern background. Considerable controversy arose when the PR department of the publishing house that published the exhibition catalogue announced its preference for the title Iranian Visions. Several authors threatened to withdraw their contributions to the catalogue and Hassanzadeh himself sent an angry message to the publishers stating that he did not agree with what he called “their ethnic marketing strategies.” In his email he wrote “Even though your sales will benefit if you insist on the “Iranian” and put, say, Khomeini on the cover, I do not want to be packaged as a national mascot”. His protest was in due course accepted and the title was changed into the compromise “Tehran Studio Works”. However, when the Tropenmuseum’s PR department argued along the same lines as the publishers and insisted on naming the exhibition Inside Iran, Hassanzadeh was tired of fighting and decided to give up.

Hassanzadeh’s irritation with the Tropenmuseum’s marketing strategies stems from his longstanding struggle against the idea that an artist’s national or religious background has an ineradicable effect on an artist’s practice. Like many artists from the region, he argues that terms like “Islamic,” “Middle East,” or even “Iran” are loaded with religious and political subtexts and that the use of such terms in exhibition concepts draws away attention from the artistic value of his work. But even apart from the marketing appeal of ethnic labelling to boost museum visitor counts, when the work of artists like Hassanzadeh is exhibited in former ethnographic museums there is a deeper going issue at stake.

Khosrow Hassanzadeh, Terrorist, No. 1 of a series of 4.

After the exhibition the Tropenmuseum acquired a series of works by Hassanzadeh entitled Terrorist [inv. nr. 6269-1 till 4]. In the four-piece series the artist portrays himself, his mother and two of his sisters as “terrorists” to question contemporary Western perceptions in which Islam is directly associated with terrorism. The four individuals are displayed against a backdrop with images referring to their personal religious beliefs. Each piece is accompanied by a label describing the portrayed “terrorist” with characteristics such as nationality, religious denomination, and personal history. In the artist’s statement that accompanies the series, Hassanzadeh writes: “This series is a reflection of a world where the word ‘terrorist’ is thrown about thoughtlessly. What is a terrorist? What are the origins of a terrorist? And in an international context who defines ‘terrorism’? … In my mind, the work had to pose these questions by cautiously joining the borders of Western and Iranian propaganda … It was with this goal that the size of the images became critical. I wanted the pieces to be like the Iranian government propaganda portraits of revolution and war martyrs painted on buildings across the country. I also wanted the size to impose itself upon the viewer – like the constant messages of Western government propaganda streamed into the homes of millions through a reckless 24-hour media machine.”(12)