This video installation consists of thirty images of men’s mouths projected on the wall 180 x 300 cm (right). The tiled mouths move but are silent. Beneath each projection is a photograph (left).
Viewers can only see the images on the photographs well by blocking the projections with their bodies (look at the video documentation). When they do so, they see fragments of women’s naked bodies—hands, knees, breasts—with the women’s eyes looking straight at the lens and at viewers. The men are members of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasts. They are talking about how women should live. My representations of this one aspect of the world show the power dynamics in shaping societal narratives, particularly in the context of gender and cultural norms in Iran. By capturing the images of women’s fragmented bodies juxtaposed with the authoritative videos of men dictating how women should live, the photographs unveil the inherent bias in the representation of reality.
In this work I draw a parallel to Simone de Beauvoir’s insight on the representation of the world by men: “Representation of the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.”[1] My photographs highlight the subjective nature of these portrayals. In their discussions on women’s lives, the men from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasts embody a perspective that conflates their own beliefs with an assumed absolute truth. Their arrogance perpetuates a skewed representation that silences the diverse voices and experiences of women. I photographed women’s naked bodies because I wanted to be close to the notion of the woman’s body itself, apart from male representation. I photographed the unclothed women without using conventional techniques that might eroticize them: the lighting is flat, and their gestures are neutral.
My deliberate choice to focus on body parts that become visible when the viewers block the projections with their bodies emphasizes the agency and resilience of women in the face of oppressive ideologies. Through my lens, I aim to provoke contemplation of the implications of such representations. By exposing the intersection of power, gender, and cultural discourse, these images invite viewers to question the validity of dominant narratives and recognize the need for a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of the world.
I observed how viewers engaged with this work: some did not want to block the light, others did, and they were surprised by the images revealed by the intervention of their own bodies. This helped me to see how I might continue to use strategies of embodiment in order to implicate viewers in their relationships with women and representations of them. Absence is the foundation for the performative videos that followed. It allowed me to creatively explore what women experience in the Islamic country of Iran, generally, and more specifically, to reflect on my own experience. It propelled me to begin to use self-portraiture, as in “Trace,” to confront the mental and psychological effects of living within Islamic Ideology.
[1] Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Vintage Books, 2010), 196.