Lot 142: Untitled (from the Qajar series)

SHADI GHADIRIAN (IRANIAN, B. 1974)
Untitled (from the Qajar series)
signed and numbered in Farsi (lower right)
print on colour paper
37¾ x 27½in. (96 x 70cm.)
Executed in 1998, this work is number seven from an edition of ten.

"Iranian Conceptual Art", Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 2001.
"Iranian Contemporary Art", Barbican Centre, London, 2001.
"Iranian Contemporary Art", Christie's, London, 2002.
"Haft: 7 Artistes Contemporains Iraniens", Musie des Annies 30, Ville de Boulogne-Billancourt, 2003.
"Far Near Distance: Contemporary Positions of Iranian Artists", House of World Cultures, Berlin, 2004.
"West by East", Centre de Cultura Contempor'nia de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2005.
"Iran.com: Iranische Kunst Heute", Museum f,r Neue Kunst, Freiburg, 2006.
"Word into Art", British Museum, London, 2006.

In Shadi Ghadirian's Qajar series, the models pose with modern props in Iranian dress and against backgrounds which recall the Qajar era in nineteenth century Iran . The images appear to depict a conscious choice on the part of the women. What we see are constructed images of her own gender, at a particular moment in history, created by a young Iranian woman. They explore the notion of the 'western image of eastern woman' and their personal alienation.

"Perhaps the only mentality of an outsider about the Iranian woman is a black chador; however I try to portray all the aspects of the Iranian women. The duality and contradiction of life provides the motive for me to display this contrast: a woman who one cannot say to what time she belongs; a photograph from two eras; a woman who is dazed; a woman who is not connected to the objects in her possession. It was very natural that after marriage, vacuum cleaners, pots and pans find their way into my photographs. The woman, here, is convicted of a daily repetitive routine and for this reason I named the series "Like Every Day. The photographs are not authentic documentations but deal with current social issues." (Shadi Ghadirian)