Imagery of the Iran-Iraq War

Touched and deranged,

downcast and sad;

with veilless face,

and no chador;

heedless of arrest,

careless of the Guards.

For eyes she has

two red grapes

fallen off the bunch.

She's mad,

stark staring mad;

she's lost,

lost to herself,

lost to the world.

A straw in the wind,

she's drifting around.

A graveless body,

she's deadened to the world.

Round her neck she has

a pair of teardrops, a curse:

of a dead soldier boots

with laces tied together.

"What's that?", I said.

"My son", she said,

"sitting on my shoulders

with his boots on."

I have posted the painting and the poem before but never together. THe painting is by Minoo Emami. It is inspired by her husband's experience in the war. He was seriously injured fighting the Iraqis. One of his legs was amputated.

The poem is The Necklace by Simin Behbahani, the Lioness of Iran. The last time I posted the poem in 2008 one of the comments made was "Jesus, that was DARK!!". I agree, In my mind it is as powerful as any of the works of Wilfred Owen.

I wanted to see how these two powerful indictments of war went together. I think they work together, others may not of course!

Negareh Ayatollahi – Iranian artist

Regular readers know that I am very fond of the work of Elahe Heidari a supremely talented Iranian artist. In 2008 I had the pleasure of meeting her in Paris while she was on a scholarship at the Cite International Des Arts in Paris. Also at the Cite International were other extremely talented and utterly charming young Iranian artists in residence, including Negareh


A week or so ago I was delighted to receive an email from Negareh announcing that that she had finally set up a website to display her work


Negareh is from Tehran. She has studied art in Tehran and in Paris. She has exhibited frequently in both France and Iran as well as in Greece, Russia and Italy.


As I have said before I am no art critic but I do like Negareh’s work very much. Art for me is a visceral rather than a cerebral experience.Her site is well worth visiting.

And some art by two superb young Iranian artists

My friend Elahe Heidari's haunting portrait of an Afghan refugee girl


A stunning work by Negareh Ayatollahi.

I had the privilege of meeting both artists last year Ot was my also my pleasure to meet Azadeh Tahaei an extremely talented photographer and poet. I only wish I had a tiny fraction of their atristic skills

Photo Hunt - Painted

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is paint or painted. This struck me as an excellent opportunity to put up some works by my friend Elahe Heidari. Elahe is an Iranian artist who is well regarded in her home country and who is beginning to gain international exposure. More of her work can be seen at elaheheidari.com

Examples of Elahe's work at an exhibition of Iranian artists in London

Promotional flyer from a solo exhibition in Iran

Early work given to me by the artist

Also stretching the point a little here are a couple of Elahe's drawings that I own:

Elahe Heidari online exhibition

A selection of my friend Elahe's works are currently being exhibited at a Swiss website Promotion4Art

The exhibition, which also includes works by fellow Iranian s Golnar Afraz, is open online at the following times (GMT?):

MONDAY-FRIDAY: 14.00 – 22.00

SATURDAY: 14.00 – 19.00

SUNDAY: 11.00 – 17.00

Some of her work on the site can also be accessed here

Promotion4Art have a large number of works from Iranian and Vietnamese artists. Some of them are well worth checking out.

Enjoy!

Minoo Emami's war gallery

The second link on my side bar is to the website of the Iranian artist Minoo Emami. Minoo lives and works in Tehran. She is a highly regarded artist who has exhibited extensively both in Iran and abroad.


It is her war art that particularly impresses me. The paintings and collages are deeply personal images, inspired by her husband's experiences during the Iran-Iraq war, an eight year long conflict started by Saddam Hussein which cost over one million lives. Her husband was an officer in the Iranian Armyand lost a leg during the conflict. Like Simin Behbahani's poem the necklace the images of false limbs and combat fatigues are in their own way as damning an indictment of war as the poetry of Wilfred Owen.



Minoo reminds us of that we should not just dwell on what is produced by American or European artists. There is an enormous wealth of talent elsewhere in the world. Although I have not met Minoo I was delighted to be able to meet fellow Iranian artist Elahe Heidari in Paris in May. I was also fortunate to meet other extremely talented Iranian artists Shiva Sanjari, Negareh Ayatollahi and Nasila Moghadan in Paris too.

Elahe Heidari's new website

Readers of this blog know that I love Elahe Heidari's work. I was introduced to her
in 2004 by a dear mutual friend Redwine and I am now the proud owner of several of her works. I was delighted finally to meet her and several other charming, hospitable and extremely talented Iranian artists in Paris last month



I'm delighted to see that Elahe now has her own website . Please visit and enjoy the work of a gifted artist.

Elahe Heidari - Afghan girl

Regular readers of this blog know that I have posted several times about of Elahe Heidari's work ( here and here are two such posts).

This is one of Elahe's recent works, another very powerful image. The subject is an Afghan refugee girl living in Tehran - one of around 900,000 afghan refugees in Iran. It was painted for a UNHCR event in Tehran last month to raise money for the Society for Protection of Children's Rights

Elahe Heidari - new drawing (a wordy Wordless Wednesday)

I was delighted to receive just recently a gift of this drawing from from Elahe Heidari, an artist and dear friend who lives in Tehran.

Ever since I first saw her work a few years ago I have been taken by its sheer power of her work, particularly her portrayal of women. It is heartening that most who see examples of her work are deeply impressed and more than a few feel as strongly about it as I do.

More examples of her work can be found at Kargah, a major Iranian art website (click on her name above and at Gallery Etemad.

This is a painting she gave me two years ago. It takes pride of place on my wall. I know this is rather a wordy entry for what should is a wordless meme but what the hey - call it a wordless Wednesday with commentary!