The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Sara Rahbar’s richly collaged flags and photographic self-portraits feature iconic fabrics and materials drawn from two countries with which she has strong connections — Iran and the United States. This is often a cathartic exercise for Rahbar, allowing her to explore personal experiences of migration and displacement. Rahbar began creating her renowned flag assemblages in 2005 while travelling from Iran to Kurdistan. 1 Often taking the symbolically loaded flag of her adopted country, the United States, as the ground for her work, she sews various emblems and materials relating to it and her birthplace, Iran, on top, obscuring all but the iconic rectangle of stars. Rahbar chose to create collaged textiles because they were easily transportable and allowed her to explore ideas of movement and change. Long histories of Persian fabrics and patterns lie behind Rahbar’s works, but she is equally aware of the strong traditions of quilting in America as well as the political use of textiles to articulate ideas of nation and belonging. Indeed, Rahbar’s use of flags as a support for her works mobilises these ideas and expresses how fraught such connections may be. In a recent artist statement, Rahbar notes: The work is always a reflection of my life. What I’m focusing on, and what is boiling, twisting and turning inside of me. 2 Obviously, childhood experiences of fleeing the Islamic revolution in Iran, feelings of displacement and the continued diplomatic tensions between Iran and her adopted home have had a profound effect on Rahbar, who as an adult has travelled extensively between the two countries, admitting to a love-hate relationship with both. When Rahbar sews Iranian fabrics onto and over the American flag she articulates connections necessary for developing her own biography, which is firmly situated in history. The strength of these works is in their multiple references: the bringing together of the personal with the collective, the intimate and the social. This is seen in Glorious Haze 2012 with its swathe of the shiny, metallic, military pins of both American and Iranian soldiers, traditional Iranian braiding, and the stars of the American flag. The multiple sources of Rahbar’s haze allows this work to reference her own connections to the two countries, the continued diplomatic standoff between them, as well as both countries’ history of violence in the name of national security. In this context, Rahbar’s title may suggest the type of blindness, or inability to see clearly, that is brought about by ideas such as ‘national glory’. Rahbar’s earlier work Cycles (Flag #7) 2007 explores ideas of violence in relation to the flag, this time looking at the cyclical nature of war, peace, love and life. Using the Iranian flag as a support, Rahbar has introduced two large roundels or wheels commonly used on Persian textiles as either a heraldic device or to symbolise ideas of eternity, without beginning or end. 3 The roundels are accompanied by peony and tulip motifs, also typical of Persian textiles. While the romantic peony motif began appearing in Islamic designs during the thirteenth century after the invading Mongols established a court in Persia, the tulip’s appearance was earlier. Indeed in Persian mythology, the first tulip is believed to have grown out of drops of blood shed by a lover. These combined motifs form a design that obstructs a full view of the Iranian flag, particularly the national emblem found at its centre. A stylised representation of the word of Allah, this emblem also appears in the shape of a tulip and is now associated with martyrdom. Military badges and gold guns and aeroplane pins are sewn across Rahbar’s textile. These are reminiscent of reconnaissance jets lost amidst a minefield of pattern and hint at the important symbolic function of textiles and the role national flags play in theatres of war. Rahbar’s own personal history has been deeply affected by the realities of such wars, experiences she sees in this work as moving between the past and the present — like moments of passionate love — in an eternal cycle. The sensual nature of Rahbar’s flag assemblages draws audiences to them. It is only on closer inspection that the works reveal their terrible beauty. In exposing this, Rahbar unpicks grand ideas of glory, nation and beauty, revealing their vulnerable underbelly: the effect on individual lives. The sophisticated nature of Rahbar’s borrowing and the multiple references she mobilises, suggest that certain experiences — dislocation and belonging, love and hate, war and peace — resonate across cultures. Ruth McDougall 1 This travel followed a period studying at Central Saint Martins, London. Writing about this experience, Rahbar states, ‘They never taught us how to make anything, they taught us how to think and showed us that anything, absolutely anything was possible, and that’s all I needed to know. After the short period of time that I spent at CSM I went straight to Tehran and began to work instantly, the floodgates had opened and it all began to pour out.’ Email to the author, 28 June 2012. 2 Artist statement, email to Russell Storer, 7 May 2012. 3 While early Sassanid textiles feature roundels with pearl borders that are very similar to the circles Rahbar employs on her flag works, they often contained animal motifs and acted as a heraldic device. Later Islamic-inspired uses of the circle are associated with ideas of eternity. SARA RAHBAR A terrible beauty SARA RAHBAR Iran/United States b.1976 Cycles (Flag #7) 2007 Iranian flag, vintage textiles, military badges, gold guns and aeroplane military pins / 147 x 96.5cm / Purchased 2012. Queensland Art Gallery / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery 183