Faces of the Arab Spring riots: The public, patriots and villains
Shirin Neshat – Installation view of The Book of Kings at Faurschou Foundation Beijing
Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud
The Gladstone Gallery and the Faurschou Foundation in Beijing, China are just some of the art spaces that have had the pleasure of exhibiting Shirin Neshat’s The Book of Kings. The exhibition consisted of a total of 56 black and white photos framed in unmated and black frames that were hung across the two galleries. Neshat, “persona non grata” in Iran due to her art, created the photographs to reference a broad array of important and modern political metaphors.
Veiled women in their traditional Islamic attire
Shirin Neshat – Rapture, 1999, gelatin silver print, 108×171.5cm
The Rapture is a projection of black and white video where Iranian artist Shirin Neshat gives a narrative that concerns the differences between Muslim women and men. Neshat has used the video projection to explore the cultural and social role of women in the Islamic World and shot the work in Morocco with a cast that included hundreds of participants.
Surprising photos of veiled female police squad in Iran
Abbas Kowsari – Police Women Academy, 2006
In 2003 the first females ever graduated from Iran’s police academy in the capital city Tehran, after undergoing a training of three years. Spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei himself had to give permission to Tehran’s police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf to create the first all-female police unit.
This is how conflict tastes
Conflict Kitchen: Cuban, Iranian, Afghan and Venezuelan takeouts, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Conflict Kitchen is a unique restaurant in Pittsburgh focusing on one nation at a time, serving dishes from countries with which the United States is currently in conflict. Each Conflict Kitchen version is amplified by profound events, performances, publications, and discussions that strive to expand the public’s engagement with the culture, politics, and issues that the country of focus deals with.
This restaurant does more than introduce customers to the food of the focus country, but envelopes them in the country’s culture, and politics introducing customers to the diverse perspectives from real members of the focus community thus serving to reveal a nuanced scale of thought, understanding, an belief within each country. This dynamic restaurant serves to bring about inquisitorial reactions, conversation, and debate with customers.
