No. 1, digital photographic collage by Sadegh Tirafkan, 97x149cm, 2009-2010

Tirafkan was born in Iraq to Iranian parents, who returned to Iran in 1970. His art has been influenced by Persian history and culture that dates to at least 550BC and the art and culture of Islam, introduced in the 7th century, as well as theater and film. His work is also informed by profound memories of the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 and an intense interest in the lives of Iranian people today.

Following Bachelor of Art studies at the University of Tehran, which he completed in 1990, Tirafkan developed interest in the ways photography could be used in creative and conceptual art.

“In the 1980s, when I was a student,” he remembered, “school and courses were dragging me to the documentary style photography and I didn’t like it, so I tried to use photography as a tool for other kinds of conceptual arts I was interested in. Up to this day, I don’t consider myself a photographer,” but he added, “I love to use photography in my mixed media work almost all the time.”

Photography is not new to Iran. The Qajar dynastic rulers were keen photographers and introduced its technology and practice to Iran in the early 19th century, not long after its invention in France in 1826. Photography was widespread and popular in Iran, as were wedding and portrait studios, by the early 20th century. Following the devastation of the Iran-Iraq War, it was an important tool for preserving a record of cultural and historical sites and coping with immense social loss.

Tirafkan’s use of digital photographic collage to explore what it means to be Iranian today and how a meaningful modern identity can be represented through a meeting of the past and present is the focus of an exhibition of new work, called “Human Tapestry”, which opened at Selma Feriani Gallery in London this month.

On show will be No. 1 (2009-2010), in which a field of human faces forms a design resembling a Persian carpet. A central medallion motif comprises multiple rows of individual head and shoulder portraits, while the background field is filled with a sea of faces in a crowd. Up close, individual characteristics dominate, while from a distance the composition becomes a pattern of light, dark and color.

Tirafkan’s new work is inspired by an interest in the population of Iran, but more specifically the dynamics of communities shaped by tradition, modernity, culture and language. “I was just trying to refer to the similarity of the carpet, which is made of many knots and the community that is made of many people,” he explained, “and it is the population that keeps the community together just like the carpet.”

In the digital collage, No. 6 (2009-2010), a large “community” of women is framed with the myriad colored knots of a hand knitted carpet. “I don’t think the individual identity is any stronger than the group or vice versa,” Tirafkan continued, “I think there is a close relationship between the two and that’s what I tried to show by making the carpet to look like a group from individual faces.”

The artist’s preoccupation with population, community and questions of how cultural heritage can inform a sense of identity in the present is very relevant in a culturally and linguistically diverse country, such as Iran, which is rapidly urbanising and where more than two thirds of the population is under the age of 30 years.

In an earlier project, called “The Loss of Our Identity” (2007), Tirafkan expressed his concern that the younger generation in Iran and elsewhere face alienation from cultures that offer meaning and a sense of continuity by the profit driven mass media.

In a statement, the artist said: “Day by day, the budget spent on educational and cultural programmes are decreasing, while the numbers of meaningless and useless websites and satellite TV shows are increasing.”

In contrast, he perceives the Persian carpet as “a symbol of culture, seasonality, richness, diversity and continuity in time and in history. As such I have been obsessed by the parallelism and marriage between this symbolic, intricately loomed object and the people to which it belongs,” he said.

From early records of majestic carpets that furnished the court of the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, the Persian carpet has featured in the lives of ordinary Iranians through the ages, covering entrances, floors and hallways of homes and used as items of warmth and protection from the natural elements by nomadic tribesmen.

The art of carpet weaving, which has evolved over centuries, has been passed from one generation to the next, embodying a story of continuity, growth and change.

It remains the most popular craft in Iran today, but Tirafkan’s “threads” are gathered with a digital camera and “weaved” on the computer. His collaged “carpets” are hybrid with references to Persian and Islamic culture, and reach out to an audience familiar with electronic media and communication.

The carpet has been a witness to lives across generations in Iran, but these collages invite contemplation of the lives of those today that are woven into that historical legacy and its continuity and evolution into the future.

Over the coming weeks, Tirafkan’s art will be seen by an audience outside Iran. One insight the artist would like viewers to gain from his work is that Persian culture is “still all about communities, elderly people live within their families, people call and visit families and friends much more often than in other cultures.

It is a very common thing to feed the poor and give out clothing and shelter to the homeless. I think this is something that has never been portrayed in the western media.”

— Photos courtesy of  Selma Feriani Gallery

Human Tapestry

Solo exhibition by Sadegh Tirafkan
Selma Feriani Gallery
London, UK
Until October 7, 2010

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