The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

77 ARTISTS Top: Zahra Imani working on Raqs No.2 2016 / Image courtesy: The artist Below: Wedding Day 2018 Fabrics, embroidery, cotton, beads, sequins, lace / 200 x 250cm / Image courtesy: The artist / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection Born 1985, Tehran, Iran Lives and works in Tehran The city of Tehran monumentalises its politicians and soldiers — predominantly male faces are writ large on banners and murals throughout the streets. The artworks of Zahra Imani can be seen as counterpoints to these heroicised images. Imani’s hand-stitched banners highlight the fleeting instances that take place in women’s lives in the metropolis of Tehran. Through figurative wall hangings, Imani depicts both intimate exchanges between women and solitary moments. Using an appliqué technique, the scenes are rendered in a mix of fabrics, from floral Liberty prints to paisley and glossy satin. The female subjects vary: a woman sleeps as a cheeky dog marks the foot of her chair with its scent ( Dog and the lady 2017); a young child tries to sneak under her mother’s dress, while other women view paintings of women in a museum ( In the gallery 2015). Imani tends to depict small moments in her works; however, they are presented on a large scale. Illustrating contemporary scenes, they resemble history paintings in their grand presentation. Imani’s works measure over two metres tall, and as a result, the scenes and rooms depicted often create illusory trompe l’oeil effects within the gallery space. This is amplified by the way the artist deploys a mix of perspectives inspired by Persian miniature and European Renaissance painting traditions. Imani reinterprets these traditions and applies them in an idiosyncratic way. Works like Bed no.2 2017 use a skewed linear perspective. By rendering the angles slightly ‘wrong’, Imani draws attention to the artifice in these representations of space. Taking the form of fabric screens, Imani’s works also reference how curtains are used to create architectural spaces in Iran, rather than as furnishings for windows. 1 The curtain or screen suggests a dynamic space — dividing areas to create two temporary spaces, and changing position and orientation according to the needs of the users. This recalls the practice of the nomadic peoples of Iran and their use of Persian carpets to create temporary walls and spaces within the landscape. 2 As an architectural structure, a curtain denotes a different notion of time to that of a (perennial) wall within a building. In her works, Imani uses fabrics purchased from local markets that are designed for everyday use. These fabrics are ubiquitous in Iranian houses in curtains, cushions and furnishings, or sewn into dresses, garments and outerwear. This choice of medium mirrors the accessible and everyday scenes depicted in her artworks. Moreover, the works are tied to the history of domestic labour and women’s handicrafts — histories only relatively recently acknowledged by the discipline of art history. Zahra Imani’s hand-stitching is visible on the surface of her works and the edges are roughly cut and left unsewn. The tender, uneven stitches and imprecise folds of the fabric acknowledge the labour and personal endeavour devoted to making the artworks. The unfinished edges also suggest a quick unravelling with a simple pull of a thread; these are not artworks designed to last for eternity. As a result, the works embody two durations: their slow creation and an ephemeral life. Ellie Buttrose Endnotes 1 Zahra Imani, interview with Ellie Buttrose, Tehran, 13 September 2017. 2 See Amir Djalali, ‘State, nomads, and the desert’, in Hamed Khosravi (ed.), Tehran: Life within Walls: A City, its Territory, and Forms of Dwelling , Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin, 2017, p.55; and Hamed Khosravi, ‘Geopolitics of Tabula Rasa: Persian garden and the idea of city’, The City as a Project , 23 July 2015, <http://thecityasaproject.org/2015/07/geopolitics-of-tabula- rasa-persian-garden-and-the-idea-of-city/>, viewed April 2018. ZAHRA IMANI