Tableaux of daily life in Iran

Ask Bita Fayyazi what inspires her to create art and she quotes artist Louise Bourgeois. “Art is not about art. Art is about life.''

Fayyazi derives inspiration from the objects and living things around her. “I am curious to know about my surroundings,'' Fayyazi told Weekend Review. “I like the mystery of all that happens around me. Even a simple thing can lead to a project.''

Fayyazi's The Road Kill was an installation featuring prostrate terracotta dogs — run over and crushed — which were buried in a grave where a high-rise was built later.

Another installation that attracted attention centred around an abandoned house due for demolition situated in the vicinity of the Hosseinieh Ershad Mosque in Tehran.

The installation, which was part of a group show, highlighted the effect of demolition on living beings.

The work consisted of models of crows placed on a mound of used fruit crates inside the abandoned house and on top of a bus-shelter outside the building.

Fayyazi's other installations included one that had thousands of outsize ceramic cockroaches — a work inspired by visits to clean up a neighbour's house where these creatures had built a world of their own in the drainage and sewage lines — and another with images of lizards placed all over a gallery floor, as if depicting a battlefield scene.

By using these creatures as metaphors, the artist tries to play up the follies of human beings. “I was inspired to use animals symbolically. They have many diverse applications,'' Fayyazi says.

“Lizards were the first creatures that attracted my attention. I am fascinated by the fear these creatures instil in the weak spirit. The reason I'd devoted my time to cockroaches is my profound interest in the insect.''

Fayyazi was trained in ceramics but when she was 27, she turned to sculpture and installation while experimenting with public art, performance and video.

Under the training of prominent Iranian sculptors such as Yuness Fayyaz and Ramin Seaa'dat-Gharim, she realised “three-dimensional, conceptual work was my thing''.

Prompting a new art movement and involving new audiences along the way, she rapidly became one of the few women artists to have achieved a high profile in Iran's art world.

Among the post-revolutionary Iranian artists to exhibit in the West, she rose to prominence internationally as well.

One of her most outstanding installations was Kismet, which was displayed at Venice Biennale 2005.

On the face of it, the installation depicts babies suspended in mid-air. But Fayyazi says: “A description of Kismet developed as a result of a dialogue between me and those who have seen the work.

"‘Kismet' means fate and it was introduced into English by a diffident English writer, Edward Fitzgerald, in his translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat.''

The artist says she has been making sculptures of babies for about seven years. “While returning from an exhibition in Denmark, I came across a book of photographs on the Bosnian war. One image caught my attention: a black-and-white picture depicting preparations for the burial of a baby who had been shot dead.

"The bullet had made a black hole in his chest. I can't recall the photographer's name but that haunting image has stayed with me ever since,'' she says.

“When I resumed work in my studio in Tehran, I started giving shape to my impressions of the baby in that image. What if the infant could somehow catch a glimpse of his fate, I wondered.''

Followed by the ambitious The Playground series at the Espace Louis Vuitton, her installation Goli's Dowry is on showcase at the Raad O Bargh show in Paris.

Talking about how an installation takes shape in her mind, Fayyazi says: “Initially, the concept of my work is not fully developed. It only presents itself as a vague sketch with a capacity to share and understand the psychological state or emotions.''

Moving ahead, as she feels confident enough, she starts developing her subject further. The choice of materials depends upon the freedom of form and expression the work permits.

As part of her first solo show in Dubai, Fayyazi is presenting There Goes the Neighbourhood, an installation that captures the diversity of life on the streets of Tehran and engages the themes of society, popular culture and religion.

“Initially, I decided to work on a small Iranian family with an idea in mind,'' Fayyazi says.

“However, something more suggestive of our culture developed. Iran is not the black-and-white [nation] described by the media.

"The community is pluralistic, with many colours, layers and complexities. I try to convey that. I started modelling the characters either in plaster or clay but the figures were eventually produced in fibreglass and polyester.''

Deftly painted by Rokni Haerizadeh in racy glosses, the characters of There Goes the Neighbourhood are adorned to the point of comedy.

Take, for example, the body builder who carries his baby with one arm and holds his over-dressed daughter's hand with the other.

His head and feet are very small and contrast comically with his bulbous upper body, as if physical mass could compensate for the lack of mental capacity. In another piece, babies in purple scream to vent their frustration.

Fayyazi says her work is genderless. “There is no comparison between gender roles. When a child is born, it doesn't know whether it is male or female. The genes and principles of our society decide that. … The figures [in the installations] simply show the superiority of one human being over the other.''

Equally self-conscious and materially driven are the installations showing trendy boys.

A Mohican-sporting boy and his girlfriend walk alongside each other, content that through their rebellious and angry appearance they have compensated for a general frustration with life.

For anyone familiar with the variety and buzz on the streets of Tehran, the images that Fayyazi creates are evocative of those environs.

Images of families also add charm to the exhibits. A man in a coat and trousers, and absent-mindedly playing with rosary beads, stands guard between his two wives.

In another work, a mother in a chador is awkwardly accompanied by her spiky haired son clad in a pair of baggy pants, flaunting a Bluetooth headset, several necklaces and bracelets.

The artist skilfully captures an obese woman in a chador, gossiping with two other women. “This is life in Iran: our neighbourhood. There is a heterogeneity in the vibrant colours and the common issues.

"I don't believe Iran is modern enough but still life goes on. We are finding a way to live despite restrictions and troubles,'' Fayyazi says.

Her installation On/Off (Abortion), created in collaboration with artist Khosrow Hassanzadeh, is a comment on abortion, an issue that attracts controversy in Iran as much as in the West.

The artists' intention was less to shock than to stimulate debate. “Artists are more involved in such quests because we try to bring out realities and sensitivities through creative means.''

With a flavourful topping of subtle humour, Fayyazi captures innate qualities of her subjects, observing their flaws and vices while maintaining objectivity.

The juxtaposition of sinister and controlling elements with a warm and nurturing side that appears in Bourgeois's art is also evident in Fayyazi's works. “She [Bourgeois] is my icon.'' the artist says.

“The similarity is more in form and sometimes in the concept. She is a woman and so am I. These are a woman's feelings. That is common.''

Fayyazi believes she relinquishes control of the message she wants to convey through her art once a work goes out of her atelier.

“It's for the viewers to decide what to believe. They define the work. I always consider myself as the dead artist with no record of works done.''

Layla Haroon is a freelance writer based in Abu Dhabi.

There Goes the Neighbourhood is on until April 5 at B21 art gallery, Dubai.