Review

Iranian Contemporary Art

Barbican Art Centre, London

13 April - 3 June 2001

Back in April, the Barbican art centre in London, put on show an exhibition entitled Iranian Contemporary Art. It ran for three months attracting the regular art lovers, some Barbican lovers, and a crowd of Iran lovers. As with any exhibition, or organised show of anything Iranian, the show has caused a mini sensation within the Iranian community both in the UK, and thanks to the Internet, notably www.iranian.com, the world, so it seems.

The exhibition was organised by Barbican Art in association with Iran Heritage Foundation and Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, supported by a variety of foreign bodies as well as the Iran Society and Visiting Arts.

There were some good, bad and some ugly art on show. On the plus side was a fantastic installation by Bita Fayyazi. In her Hitchcockian Cockroaches (1998), she uses 1000 ceramic cockroaches, to create a very Iranian feel. It takes us back to the fear we felt as children on seeing those horrible red nasty beasts whizzing and flying past us.

Other memorable and thought provoking art included Ghazal's three-video installation (1998-2000). She has treated the subject of contemporary Iran with both seriousness and humour. The narrative is entertaining and I found myself laughing out loud at a scene the woman sunbathing in a chador.

Then there where the less original pieces by Shadi Ghadirian, who tries it seems too hard to be critical of contemporary Iran.

There where humourless homo-kitch images by Fereydoun Ave, for instance, Rostam in Late Summer (1998), or the bizarrely titled Limou Limou sculpture by Parviz Tanavoli (1962), which unfortunately took a little too much from the late Picasso. And some pretty silly copies like Reza Mafis' untitled 1982 minimalist job, or Monir Farmanfarmaian's silly reflective image entitled Mirror Panel (1970).

The organisers Rosa Issa and Carol Brown had got hold of some star artists, such as the much loved Sohrab Sepehri, with his Body of Trees (1972) and the new pop star of Iranian contemporary art, the US based Shirin Neshat. Luckily the piece on exhibit, Rapture (1999) is one of her more honest pieces.

On visiting the modest exhibition, I tried to avoid letting the organisers of the exhibition cloud my judgement. After all these are the good people who helped organise the recent Iranian film festival at the Barbican and have in the past set up some culturally delightful events in various posh London venues.

Iranian Contemporary Art is ambitious. It's ambitious in that is tries to show us "innovation in Iran's vibrant culture," says the exhibition pamphlet, by "showing a diverse range of media, from painting to video," and "charting the development of the most ground breaking work of the last 40 years." Wow, that sounds like a mouth full, especially to be shown in one small hall.

I think it may be my own prejudice for being suspicious of any exhibition, be it Iranian, Bulgarian, or Outer Mongolian which tries to tackle such a big subject. The theme requires a great deal of knowledge about not just Iranian art, but all art. It also simply requires more space. To rush it as these good people have, is simply to insult the subject.

On leaving the hall, I felt cheated. "Is that all," I thought. This is all a country like Iran has to show for the past 40 years, or was this all the organisers where able to, or wished to gather. I think the proof is in the pamphlet. It mirrors the exhibition beautifully: pretty and fluffy.

Lili Banai