Pars Arts

Pictures of You: Images from Iran

Tom Loughlin is a Colorado-based artist whose portraits of Iranians in Iran are being shown in a groundbreaking and thought-provoking installation across the United States. We asked Tom how his show, Pictures of You: Images from Iran, came about, how people have reacted so far, and where the show is going.

Pars Arts: In your artist’s statement, you write that the idea for Pictures of You started when you were taking photos in Isfahan. What drew you to Iran in the first place?

Tom Loughlin: The first time I heard of Iran was in 1979, when I was in middle school in St. Louis, Missouri. I clearly remember an intense mood of anger and disbelief about the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Every night on the network news, we would be reminded of how many days the “hostage crisis” had gone on. I don’t recall hearing anything about the history of U.S./Iranian relations, and the only explanation offered for the actions of the Iranian hostage takers was that they were religious fundamentalists who hated the United States.

The whole thing made quite an impression on me, and as I grew older, I couldn’t stop wondering what had motivated those Iranian university students. In high school, I was lucky enough to be able to take a course on Middle Eastern history, which helped me understand the roots of the Iranian revolution, and put Iranian concerns about U.S. intervention in a new light.

Although my history class helped to explain what had happened in Iran in 1979, it raised important questions for me about the United States. For example, our government’s participation in the 1953 coup was not part of our national conversation about Iran in 1979. What does that say about our own representative democracy? How can citizens engage in informed debate about foreign policy decisions if they lack the most basic historical facts?

Western demonization of Iran is not a new phenomenon – it dates back to the time of Herodotus. What’s fascinating to me is that we in the United States can’t seem to move away from that narrative. Of course there are many, many Americans who understand the world in a more nuanced way, but the puzzle for me is why with all of our prosperity, freedom, and commitment to education, so many of us have a simplistic, polarized view of U.S./Iranian relations.

PA: How did you find your subjects for the portraits in the installation? How did they react to the project?

TL: The show has evolved fairly rapidly over the past two years. When I first traveled to Iran in October 2006, the project didn’t even really exist. My main interest was in seeing Iran with my own eyes, and finding out what life was like for people in Iran. Not surprisingly, I was welcomed with Iran’s legendary hospitality, and I quickly came to believe that the United States would be a better place if all Americans could see the humanity of the citizens of Iran.

On my most recent trip to Iran, I was able to show renderings of what the completed installation would look like, and talk in some detail about where the work would be shown. Everyone I spoke to about the project seemed to understand it right away – both my desire to show Iran to Americans, and the variety of responses that we were likely to get in the United States. I found people to be very supportive, and quite interested to see how Americans would respond.

PA: The photos in Pictures of You are printed on translucent silk. You’ve written that the silk is intended to allow viewers to see each other as well as the photographs, and to remind them that “something beautiful is in jeopardy.” How have viewers reacted to Pictures of You?

TL: There have been a wide variety of reactions. In fact, the one commonality seems to be that no one is indifferent. Everyone seems to have a powerful response to the show.

So far, the overwhelming majority of responses have been positive. Viewers thank us for putting a human face on Iran, and many of them have powerful emotional responses. It’s quite amazing for me as an artist to see people emerging from the installation in tears, or emptying their pockets into our donation boxes because they want to see the show travel to other venues.

We have had a variety of negative responses as well. At our installation in Denver, we were picketed by a Christian group that wanted to express the view that Muslims were going to hell. Interestingly, they all agreed that the subjects of my photographs looked like very nice people. At the same installation, we had a visitor tell us that he wanted to go and get dynamite and destroy the artwork. One of our staff members engaged him in conversation about the show, and within ten minutes he had changed his mind completely! He told us he supported what we were doing, and thanked us for being there.

A lot of the negative responses have appeared on weblogs and news sites. Several bloggers came through our installation without sharing their opinions with anyone staffing the show, but went home and posted their negative feelings on their websites. In some cases, those posts drew hundreds and hundreds of comments within a day of being posted. There was also extensive commentary in response to mainstream online newspaper coverage of the show – frequently quite negative.

It’s fascinating to see how people make use of the new media that are available today. In this case, online forums have allowed debate about the show (and about U.S./Iranian relations) among people from very different backgrounds and points of view. Of course, we have also seen person-to-person debate and dialog happening at the show, too.

PA: Your website notes Pictures of You will be traveling throughout the U.S. in 2008/2009. Where have you shown thus far, and where are you headed?

TL: So far we have shown the work in my hometown of Crested Butte, Colorado, and at the Democratic National Convention. My wife and I agreed that we would build the installation and show it at those venues so that people could see what it looked like and how it worked. Let’s face it: this is a project that’s difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t seen it. Now that we’ve shown it a couple of times, and people have begun to talk about their experience of seeing the show, we think it will be easier for people to understand what we’re trying to do.

We are currently in a period of fundraising. It’s not a cheap show to put on, and we are absolutely committed to the idea that it has to be free for people to come see it. We want as many people as possible to have a chance to walk through the installation, so we feel the need to travel with it and to keep admission free.

We’ve put together a list of venues – we’ve narrowed it down to fifteen places we would like to travel to – beginning in Los Angeles this spring. But it’s all contingent on financial support. We’d be interested in hearing from your readers about where they would like to see the show, and whether they would be interested in supporting our fundraising efforts. [Ed. note: see the end of this post for tentative cities/dates.]

PA: Were you able to show this installation at the DNC and RNC? How did viewers at each convention react?

TL: In some ways, the most interesting responses we got were from the Democratic and Republican National Committees that put on the conventions. The DNC had a designated “free speech” zone in a beautiful city park right in the heart of downtown Denver. The DNC helped groups who wanted to put on a display in the park, or march from the park to the auditorium where the convention was being held. We had a rather large, unorthodox installation to put on, but with help from the DNC and officials working for the City of Denver, we were able to pull it off.

We had a different experience with the folks planning the Republican National Convention. We applied to put on our installation in their designated free speech zone – a large, grassy island across the Mississippi River from the convention site. After we submitted our application, we were told that our installation couldn’t go in the free speech zone, so we had to start over again. After months of going back and forth, we were offered a spot just a few weeks before the convention. The proposed location was under a bridge next to a highway, and had no parking lot and no way for pedestrians to cross the highway. We elected not to put on the installation there.

Draw your own conclusions about what those distinctions might mean.

PA: What are your future plans for Pictures of You?

TL: We want to travel broadly with the installation, and we want to record how Americans respond to it. I think the variety and the intensity of viewers’ responses to the show present an opportunity to document where we are as a nation right now. We’ve made a short film about the first two installations, and it’s been a great way to illustrate how people respond to the artwork [Ed. note: see top of this post for the video]. We would like to do a longer film about the reception we get as we travel across the United States. But, as I mentioned, this is all dependent on financial support.

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Pictures of You will have tentative showings in the following cities in 2009:

• Los Angeles, early April
• Las Vegas, mid April
• St. George, UT, mid/late April
• Phoenix, early May
• Santa Fe, early/mid May
• Colorado Springs, mid/late May
• St. Louis, 4th of July
• Cheyenne, WY, mid July
• Chicago, mid August
• Minnesota State Fair, late August
• Kansas State Fair, mid September
• Texas State Fair, late September/early October
• Oxford, MS, mid October
• Oklahoma City, mid/late October
• Louisiana State Fair, late October/early November
• East Coast trip starting Spring 2010

Love Sent to Iran

 

Bri Olson in Tehran - photo by Michael Pope

Bri Olson is an American artist who wrote about her project, Send Love to Iran, on Pars Arts several months ago. She was recently able to achieve her goal of visiting and seeing the real Iran. Here’s what she saw:

After a year or so of saving up and several months biting my finger nails while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered my visa request, I flew, arm-in-arm with my better half, to Tehran to experience Iran firsthand. Having only a general idea of what to expect, Michael and I felt a bit like we were exploring uncharted territory when we stepped off our Emirates plane at Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Two years ago, I never would have considered that Tehran might have a contemporary art scene worth mentioning, until my new Iranian friend Raam (of rock band Hypernova) started to tell me stories of the “real” Iran: Basement shows, desert festivals, and private parties that gave artists and socialites outlets to express themselves. Cut to: Me; covered in hijab, guidebook in hand and ready to see for myself a world whose media and images are filtered by both U.S. and Iranian governments. 

Owing to Persian hospitality and our unique foreign status, we were given the diplomatic treatment for the entirety of our stay. Though our time was limited, I’m particularly pleased with the spectrum of artists and curators we were able to meet and the ground we were able to cover. For the sake of brevity, I’ll give you the short short-list. 

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
The Tehran MoCA is definitively an “institution,” therefore subject to governmental supervision (after the revolution, Dali, Picasso, Warhol and others where relegated to the basement) and bureaucracy. That said, it’s always telling to see what sort of creative things the humans on the inside can do to keep people in their wings. When we went to meet with the International Director, they were showing works from instructors at Tehran’s art schools. The place was full, a testament to how much art education is happening in the city. After touring the museum, my favorite find was actually a Magritte’s Le Therapeute, a sculpture from their permanent collection – ironically, it’s neither Iranian nor contemporary. 
 
Vahid Sharifian, Art Star
I first saw Vahid at an opening at Artist’s Forum (Khaneh-ye honarmandan). He and his posse, looked like they were lifted right out of the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn (is there such thing as Iranian Apparel?) and I tried to sneak a candid picture of them (unsuccessfully, when I reviewed the snapshot – it was clear they were all posing for me). The next time we ran into him was at Silk Road Gallery – a worth-the-search photography gallery in North Tehran – and from there we spent over an hour in a taxi to see his current solo exhibition at Ave Gallery. The show, entitled “My father is a democrat and through his chimney there are always hearts flying to the sky,” was a collection of holographic prints, an unveiled Sophia Loren in a series of instructional cooking poses. He even showed us the two prints the gallery wouldn’t hang (showing too much sternum), and I delighted in how tame they seemed compared to most things I’d find in a Manhattan gallery. Vahid is so clearly Lower East Side material but for now can’t leave the country, owing to his refusal to serve in the military. 

Pariyoush Ganji, Painter and Lecturer, Tehran University
Whereas Vahid is very much “new school,” Pariyoush is clearly “old school.” The instant I stepped into her home studio was the first time I truly relaxed while in Tehran, and in no other meeting did I feel the power of the moment so intimately. At 63, her matriarchal presence was soothing and we sipped tea surrounded by the traded works of her contemporaries. 

Guts // Pariyoush in Tehran from brianna olson on Vimeo.

Pariyoush studied painting in Tehran and across Europe in the 1960s, where students witnessed Che Guevara’s revolution, resisted the Shah, and constantly debated and studied political ideas. It was no wonder then, that she expressed concern to me that her students at Tehran University today are void of philosophy, and saw that lack in the exhibitions they held. We discussed the absolute importance of my generation and she lauded me for my willingness to take risks and “move through narrow doors.” By the end of our lunch, it was clear that I had made almost as much of an impression on her as she had on me – score one for an American girl in Tehran.

Amirali Ghasemi, Curator, Biennial Tehran
Amirali Ghasemi founded the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran with Serhat Koksal because, he says, “It seems impossible to have a proper Tehran biennial in Tehran,” and with so much talent (their roster includes something like 300+ artists) it’s no wonder Ghasemi wants to take his exhibition on the road. Their first stop (opening late last May) was Istanbul, and they are slated to open in Berlin this November and continue through 2010 [Ed. note: Bri was invited to be part of the Berlin show!]. His concept of an “independent, low-budget, traveling exhibition” able to be carried “on any cheap flight” makes him the winner of my admiration and someone you should keep an eye on as a defining member of Tehran’s contemporary art scene.

More about Bri’s trip:

• An American In Tehran, LGOIT.com
• Send My Love to Iran, Bri’s blog

Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

(Via Boing Boing - thanks for the heads-up, Xeni!)

Tehran Has No More Pomegranates: L.A. Screenings and Q&A with Director Massoud Bakhshi

Experimental documentary Tehran Has No More Pomegranates is coming to L.A. this week, with two screenings each on Wednesday and Thursday at the Landmark in West LA, at 7pm and 9pm (details at Sociarts). Watch the film’s opener above, and find out more about the film and its director, Massoud Bakhshi, in our Q&A below: 

Pars Arts: The narrative context of Tehran Has No More Pomegranates – the “musical, historical, comedy, docu-drama, love story, experimental film” you’ve created – is a report you’re writing that explains why it’s not complete. This self-reflexivity – referring to the process of creating the film, within the film – continues throughout. Can you talk a bit about why you decided to couch the story in this context and format?

Massoud Bakhshi: Personally, I am fascinated by form in cinema, and “film in film” or “making of” has always been a wonderful plattform for any narrative film to me. And I think here in Iran, stories behind the camera are more interesting than those in front of it.

PA: The idea of a story or film not being complete or finished seems especially appropriate for a story about a big city, because they’re so dynamic. It took you five years to edit the film: how many iterations of the film did you go through, and how did you know when you were done?

MB: I am always working with a script, no matter if it’s fiction or documentary. I had the complete story of this film in my hand in 2000! And then I changed everything in shooting and especially in editing. I think a good film never ends -it continues because it remains with its audience. But this film is “unfinished” in its form because I think nobody would be able to finish a film about Tehran! 

PA: I read that you were really limited by the equipment available to you to create the film (namely, a camera that didn’t record sound), and that’s partly why even the footage that’s not archival has a retro feel. In fact, for a person that doesn’t live in Iran, it can be somewhat difficult to tell if some of the color footage is archival or not. Is that something you were going for all along? Do you think you would have approached this film differently or had a vastly different result with different equipment? How much did the limitations of your equipment help or inspire (or interfere) in shaping the story you told?   

MB: I think limits make young people more creative, especially here in Iran. I had lots of problems getting 35 mm stock, because everybody asked “Why are you making this film in 35mm and not in video?” But from the very beginning I wanted to make this film in 35mm, because I wanted to give life to dead, archival film footage and I was quasi-sure that I was making a film that captures the face of a very changing city and society and wanted to transmit this picture for future generations. The fact that we couldn’t record voice forced me not to use 25 hours of interviews I had recorded in video, blow them up in 35mm, and to make myself content in using the 35mm rushes I had in a different way.

PA: There are sizable doses of both history lesson and nostalgia in this film, particularly in the narration of Nosrat Karimi and in all the different music you used, which I imagine resonate a great deal with Iranians around the world. Have the reactions of the Iranian diaspora to this film been markedly different from those of audiences in Iran?

MB: Well, I saw different reactions in different places, but among Iranians, young people and old people both loved the film and its music. I think the different music used in this film evokes many different time periods in Tehran and that’s why people from different generations like it.

PA: You’ve said that your aim with Tehran Has No More Pomegranates is to hold up a mirror and reflect back a true image of Tehran and the country at large. The movie seems to be the most critical of the city in certain scenes that are cut off, or when your voiceover clearly contradicts the reality of the visuals on the screen – and in fact your voice seems that of the classic unreliable narrator (or at least the narrator that’s not playing it straight). In fact, the only character that does seem reliable is Jafar, who emerges throughout as a sort of protagonist. Most of the other characters are just visual portraits. How did you settle on him as the truth-teller in the film?

MB: I think he found us himself and he put himself into our film. From the beginning, I was telling myself not to shoot poverty and the poor so that I won’t be accused of making a “geda-geraphy” film (a the term invented for filmmakers focusing on those subjects so they can go to festivals with their films). But Jafar was an exception. He is not acting – he’s just telling the truth about himself and about the city, and that’s why he’s a key in the film. I shot him for just five minutes and I think I used all five minutes in the film!

I ‘d love to screen the film one day in his presence, and I know that he’s still wandering the streets of Tehran, looking for someplace to sleep and something to eat.