Putting New Faces on Islamic History
May 18, 2010 Back to News
ONE balmy evening this month, a glamorous crowd was packed into the tiny Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery on the Upper East Side for the opening of “Icons,” a show of video installations by the Iranian-born filmmaker Shoja Azari that runs through Friday.
It was his first solo show in New York, though Mr. Azari, 52, is no stranger to the high-end art world. The professional and romantic partner of the art star Shirin Neshat, he has been her primary collaborator on films and videos, including the feature “Women Without Men,” which opened in Manhattan on May 14. And Mr. Azari’s own multimedia installations have been increasingly showcased in galleries and museums around the world.
So that night, in a space whose rooms had been darkened to suggest a shrine, the scene felt comfortably familiar as Mr. Azari and Ms. Neshat chatted with a mix of American and Iranian luminaries including Glenn Lowry, the director of the Museum of Modern Art; Lisa Dennison, a chairwoman of Sotheby’s North and South America; and Ehsan Yarshater, the director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University and editor of the Encyclopedia Iranica.
But there was also an undercurrent of nervousness in the gallery, which specializes in Iranian art. For weeks, its owner, Ms. Heller, had received worried letters from friends, many of whom suggested that she think twice before showing Mr. Azari’s new work. Five glowing five-foot-high video portraits that he made this year, they are based on the brightly colored posters of Shiite imams, martyrs and saints, all of them male, that hang in shops, restaurants and homes throughout Iran. In each, the traditional subject’s face has been replaced with a video portrait of a contemporary Iranian woman who blends seamlessly into the painted background (but can also be seen to move and breathe) — a transformation that some pious Shiites might view as sacrilegious.
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It was his first solo show in New York, though Mr. Azari, 52, is no stranger to the high-end art world. The professional and romantic partner of the art star Shirin Neshat, he has been her primary collaborator on films and videos, including the feature “Women Without Men,” which opened in Manhattan on May 14. And Mr. Azari’s own multimedia installations have been increasingly showcased in galleries and museums around the world.
So that night, in a space whose rooms had been darkened to suggest a shrine, the scene felt comfortably familiar as Mr. Azari and Ms. Neshat chatted with a mix of American and Iranian luminaries including Glenn Lowry, the director of the Museum of Modern Art; Lisa Dennison, a chairwoman of Sotheby’s North and South America; and Ehsan Yarshater, the director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University and editor of the Encyclopedia Iranica.
But there was also an undercurrent of nervousness in the gallery, which specializes in Iranian art. For weeks, its owner, Ms. Heller, had received worried letters from friends, many of whom suggested that she think twice before showing Mr. Azari’s new work. Five glowing five-foot-high video portraits that he made this year, they are based on the brightly colored posters of Shiite imams, martyrs and saints, all of them male, that hang in shops, restaurants and homes throughout Iran. In each, the traditional subject’s face has been replaced with a video portrait of a contemporary Iranian woman who blends seamlessly into the painted background (but can also be seen to move and breathe) — a transformation that some pious Shiites might view as sacrilegious.
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