By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: A collection of contrasting images that confront contradictions in the society are being showcased in a new exhibition at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art Doha.
Some portraits from the Iranian revolutions which speak emotions beyond political discussions are a fictional courtyard with poetry and music is major attractions of ‘Shirin Neshat: Afterwards,’ the first solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist. She is an Iranian living in the United States.
The exhibition is composed with layers of information, images, references and concepts. It is an experience that through the artist’s interrogation of history and acts of building and destroying life and relationships, addresses the contradictions inherent to humanity.
“Finally this amount of work has been brought to a museum in Doha,” said Shirin during a press preview of the exhibition yesterday.
The exhibition was inaugurated by H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, together with Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson of Qatar Museums, Dr Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, Vice-President of Qatar Foundation, Eric Chevallier, French Ambassador to Qatar and Abdellah Karroum, Director of Mathaf.
The first floor of Mathaf has photographic series The Book of Kings (2012) inspired by the poem Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) by Persian poet Ferdowsi, written between c. 977 and 1010 CE, as well as a selection of video installations, OverRuled (2012) and Turbulent (1998) that collectively comment on historical, cultural and political realities on which the artist has focused on for the past 30 years.
The photographic series from The book of Kings comprised of 45 individual portraits of people who were affected by power. There are also full body portraits and painted torsos displaying images of violent battle scenes.
“The Book of Kings is a conceptual and artistic approach to narrating history, questioning the notion of ‘heroism,’ and capturing the emotional and human realities behind the faces of those who stand in the intersection of love, devotion and sacrifice, yet violence, atrocity, and death,” says Shirin.
Then it’s moved to a video installation, of a fiction court yard, where lawyers argue of Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet and it’s being answered by music. Also another video installation, Turbulent, is based on gender and contradiction between traditional and contemporary music.
Photos of Women of Allah Series speaks of stereotypes of women in the middles east. The photographic work was done in early 1990s Iran.
Our House in Fire is compromised of portraits showing faces of the living and the labelled feet of the dead, photographed in Cairo. This exhibition is curated by Karroum, and will be open until February 15, 2015.
Shirin will join Karroum for a one-off public conversation at 3pm today as part of the CIMAM 2014 Annual conference, the most important forum for communication and exchange between museums, professionals, and artists in the modern and contemporary art world. This conversation takes place at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art at Qatar Foundation.
The Peninsula
