Iranian Contemporary Art in Santa Ana CA

Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art Curated by Elizabeth Little November 7, 2009-January 10, 2010 Opening Reception: November 7, 2009 7-10pm. Admission is Free. Events: November 5 & 6 Press Preview. To arrange a preview call 714-567-7233 November 6, 2009 5-6pm Panel Discussion with CSUF Professors November 7, 2009 4pm Curator walk-through with Elizabeth Little November 7, 2009 5-6pm Keynote Speaker: Peter J. Chelkowski November 7, 2009 8pm Performance Art Piece by Alina Mnatsakanian November 10, & December 8 2009 7pm Iran and Contemporary Cinema Film Series December 5, 2009 5-6pm Panel Discussion with Pepperdine University On November 7, 2009 the CSUF Grand Central Art Center presents Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art featuring eight artists of Iranian descent. As a result of the Iranian Revolution of the 1970s, the artists participating in this exhibition explore western culture and Iranian traditions through their art. Unified by their cultural experiences, these artists offer insight into a community torn between democratic and theocratic values, and a Persian past and Islamic present. Showing in this exhibition are: Taraneh Hemami, an installation artist from San Francisco, California, Aydin Aghdashloo, fine artist and illustrator from Tehran, Iran, painter Yari Ostovany from Reno, Nevada, Hadieh Shafie, sculptor and painter from Baltimore, Maryland, Makan "Max" Emadi, a painter from Claremont, California, Shadi Ghadirian, a photographer from Tehran, Iran, Alina Mnatsakanian, an installation and performance artist from Switzerland, as well as archival historic images from the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Coinciding with Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets are several panel discussions involving Cal State Fullerton Faculty and lectures by Middle Eastern historians. Keynote Speaker Dr. Peter J. Chelkowski received his PhD in Persian Literature from Tehran University and is currently professor of Middle Eastern Studies at New York University. He has traveled the world studying Middle Eastern performance art and religious rituals. Guest curator and historian Elizabeth Little organized this exhibit. She has lived in Cairo, Egypt and studied Middle Eastern and Islamic history at the University of New Mexico Curator's Statement: It is not about politics, Even though a country was torn apart by it. It is not about religion, Even though a country's daily life is driven by it. It is about the people, the people of Iran. Hidden Wounds: Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art discusses the topic of the Islamic Iranian Revolution of 1979, yet this catalyst is not the focus. Instead, the project covers the stories of a group of contemporary Iranian artists whose artworks explore topics from gender issues within an Islamic society, propaganda of small school children, loss of identity, to the sheer physical violence of the Revolution. It is the people that we focus on in this exhibition; their stories, their motivations behind their diaspora which also serves as a constant reminder of what is truly lost�..a home. Despite the anger, frustration or sadness felt having lived through the Revolution of 1979, these artists serve as the example of still a longing to return to, not just a home, but above all a sense, a feeling of being home before everything changed. - Elizabeth Little, Curator

"Children Are Our Future No. II"

2009
Oil on Canvas
60"x60" (framed)

Islamic Erotica

Max Emadi's “Islamic Erotica” series was begun in 2002, following the infamous events of September 11th. In the following weeks and months, I started to feel my “otherness” once again, recalling my feelings from 1979 when my family immigrated to the United States from Iran. The familiar sting reminded me of how I felt as a fourteen- year old entering high school in California without a mastery of the English language, and only days after my countrymen had found it necessary to take a number of hostages from my newly-adopted land’s U. S. embassy. These periods in history, I suspect, made many Iranians feel similarly complicated emotions in our new “western” homes. I was almost ready to address my cultural conflicts through my art then, but it was not until Bush declared war on Iraq that my feelings actually boiled over!

As an atheist, I had always been critical of the state of my home country and the other theocracies of the world. However, I was not entirely a western convert either. Just because I hated the Iranian government more, I was not blind to the hypocrisies and travesties carried out by imperialists in the name of democracy.

In this series, I wanted to examine gender issues from both sides of the aisle. By combining the seemingly contradictory images of Islamic dress and American pinup art, we see a nightmarish vision of a possible future in the Middle East, as globalization and American and European democracy attempt to dominate while fundamentalist traditions hold fast in the region.

Sexism exists in all societies. The sexism of the East is direct. It is most apparent in its mandated repressive female clothing and legal and cultural restrictions on women’s freedom. Here, the double-standard between men and women cannot be denied. Perhaps the West objectifies women more “lovingly”. The traditional art of this culture exalts the “weaker sex,” though with a constant emphasis on her sexuality and little else. Overexposure and the unnatural poses of the female models are most clearly evident in modern advertising, entertainment media, and in the traditional pinup art of the 1940s and 50s. My work juxtaposes these two very different, but related, representations of the female.

I have been criticized by feminists and Muslims alike, but I believe my work supports the positions of both of them! After all, isn’t it true that erotic art, as a tool of sexism in a culture that objectifies women sexually, should really empower women who live in a culture that strips them of their sexuality and the power it brings? A type of image that, in secular societies, has been reduced to a pedestrian tool of commerce, titillation, and subjugation, is anything but that in a theocratic region. It may very well be a tool of revolution!
Islamic Erotica picture gallery

Femme Fatale No.8

"Femme Fatale No.8"

2008
Acrylic on Canvas
30"x24"