While there was some art I did not necessarily enjoy in this exhibition, I think the idea behind it is commendable. Chelsea Art Museum’s mission is “to promote cross-cultural understanding through the arts.” This particular show, including video, sculpture, photography, and painting, strives to explore the human spirit from both inside and outside a country which has been at the center of global controversy. Often associated with the infamous “Axis of Evil,” this show “aims to promote a common humanity that binds all people together.” There is the work of 56 artists on view, half of whom still live in Iran facing restricted artistic expression and half of whom live in the Diaspora and struggle to form a new identity. Although the show is statement against misperceptions, visitors are left making up their own minds about what makes up the people of Iran. The show is broken into categories: In Search of the Axis of Evil, Stereotypes, City life, Recycled techniques and styles from Iran, and gender and sexuality.

Highlights from the exhibition:

Rock Scissors Paper

Rock Scissors Paper by Jinoos Taghizadeh. Her juxtaposition of newspaper archives documenting historical events throughout the 1979 revolution with imagery from canonical Western masterpieces of art. The Death of Marat is on the same page as a story about the death of a journalist. Lenticular prints, as the viewer moves, portions of the imagery shifts and moves. I liked it because it was not derivative–a unique and clever idea with a political punch.

Turbulent (male singer one one screen)

Turbulent (cloaked female on opposite screen)

Turbulent (female singer)

Turbulent by Shirin Neshat (probably the most famous artist in the show) from 1998 includes two opposing large video screens. On one a man in a crisp white shirt passionately sings surrounded by an audience of his attentive and supportive peers. On the opposite screen, there is a cloaked figure standing still. When the man finishes his song, the cloaked figure begins singing to an empty auditorium. The camera pans to reveal a woman’s face. Obviously a commentary on the different experiences of the different genders in Iran.

An untitled work from 2006 by Ahmad Morshedloo includes a painting of a man on a bed fantasizing about provocative postcards of women that have had burqas painted on them covering the women except for their eyes. As the wall text explains, “at the end of the day the complete revealing of women just like their veiling is the same: an objectifying of women and female sexuality.”

Farideh Lashai's work

I also like a mixed media work by Farideh Lashai in which the artist uses canvas screens on which to project her complex video that fuses traditional imagery with contemporary. She borrows imagery from Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe which slowly morphs into three identically placed figures but they are Eastern and the woman who was naked is now clothed. She references traditional Iranian poetry and folklore in her work. It really drew the viewer in and was beautiful.

Tolerating Intolerance image courtesy of artnet

A great ink jet print by Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi called “Tolerating Intolernce” caught my eye toward the end of the exhibition. Two Toblerone packets sit on a table, one with the word “Tolerating” on it and the other with “Intolerance” on it. It is humorous but also poignant as it points out the desensitization of the masses towards the suffering of others shown through images of mass consumption.