"She Who Tells a Story - Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World" - National Museum of Women in the Arts, April 8, 2016 - July 31, 2016

[Tweaked]

Opening this week, "She Who Tells a Story - Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World" is a timely exhibition featuring "more than 80 photographs challenging stereotypes surrounding the people, landscapes, and cultures of Iran and the Arab world."

Artists include Shirin Neshat (who just had a large solo exhibit at the Hirshhorn), Lalla Essaydi (and her triptych Bullets Revisited #3), and featuring works from Boushra Almutawakel's The Hijab Series. 

The Washington Post calls it a "landmark exhibit":

"Female Photographers Tell Important Stories in Landmark Exhibition" by Roger Catlin on washingtonpost.com

[Tweaked]

Photo essay in the Post:

"The Art of 'She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World" on washingtonpost.com

[DonRocks]

Because you took the time to start this thread and write these posts, I'm not only going to be attending the exhibit, but I'm going to make it a point to commit at least three of the artists (none of whom I'm familiar with) to memory for future instant recall.

Thank you, Tweaked - I *urge* people to scroll through the slideshow in the previous post - the photographs are absolutely riveting. Is there anything in particular you think I should be on the lookout for? Anything in particular you think I should notice?

I wish we could get Sarah Kennel's commentary on this exhibit, but she moved.

[Tweaked]

Saw this upcoming exhibit announced in the Washington Post:

"National Museum of Women in the Arts to Host Exhibition from the Rubell Family Collection" by Peggy McGlone on washingtonpost.com

"Organized by the Rubell Family Collection, one of the world's largest privately-owned contemporary art collections, the exhibit features sculptures and paintings of artists from 15 countries, including Karin Davie, Mickalene Thomas, Isa Genzken, Yayoi Kusama, Solange Pessoa and Mira Dancy."

Per the Rubell Family Collection website:  The Rubell Family Collection (RFC) was established in 1964 in New York City, shortly after its founders Donald and Mera Rubell were married. It is now one of the world's largest, privately owned contemporary art collections.  In Miami, Florida, since 1993, the RFC is exhibited within a 45,000-square-foot repurposed Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated goods facility and is publicly accessible. The Contemporary Arts Foundation (CAF) was created in 1994 by Don and Mera Rubell with their son Jason Rubell to expand the RFC's public mission inside the paradigm of a contemporary art museum.

[DonRocks]

I saw this exhibit today, and it's just about what I was expecting from Tweaked's post. What surprised me, from a white male's perspective (and please don't take this the wrong way, because it's only meant to be informative) is how *un*-shocking the risky photographs were from my point of view, which tells me that this is more of an early movement in the development of Islamic female photographers, and that things will be incredibly different fifty years from now, at least in terms of subject matter; in terms of photographic skill, these women are already developed artists.

For example, one of the photographs - undeniably a beautiful picture - is of a woman in traditional Islamic dress, holding a can of Pepsi. For such an oppressed culture, this certainly represents extreme rebellion, and must be applauded and supported, but if you're merely used to reading the daily news online, you may be surprised at how tame some of these pictures seem.

The entire exhibition can be seen in 30-60 minutes (it's on the 2nd floor of a 4-5-floor museum), but I think I missed at least one room. The pictures that stand out the most in my memory (which is now about two-hours old) are the ones of the newlyweds, celebrating and picnicking in the middle of war zones - those are striking no matter how immune you are to shock value. Also, the series about "mother, daughter, and doll," a sequence to be read from right-to-left, and which slowly unmasks its subjects - it's telling that even the leftmost photo shows something merely approaching normalcy, as opposed to something that appears shocking or daring.

To me, personally, this is an exhibition about cultural advancement as much as it is about photography - we're witnessing it as it's happening, and the fact that it's occurring inside the walls of a museum is, in-and-of-itself, full of irony.

Here is the webpage for "She Who Tells a Story" - it's worth a trip to see, and represents only a small percentage of the museum as a whole (which had free admission). Let me know what you think, and which photographs appealed to you the most, caught your attention, and made you reflect on things.

And as long as I have your attention, here is the webpage for Upcoming Exhibitions.

[DIShGo]

I enjoyed this exhibit, and the museum. The photographs of two newlyweds performing mundane tasks in a war zone moved me. I also was drawn to another series showing a mother and child and her doll, in clothing ranging from Western attire to full burkas and then total obscurity.

The "Listen" display contained powerful images, including a woman in traditional attire standing in the ocean. There also were head shots of several professional women singers in front of glittering backdrops, their mouths open in song, each forbidden by law to produce an album.

I am glad I visited this museum, and enjoyed the paintings and sculptures by women artists from around the world displayed on the third and fourth floors.

 

[Tweaked]

More coverage from the Post. 

[DonRocks]

10 minutes ago, Tweaked said:

More coverage from the Post. 

From the article:

"Ten of Almutawakel's works - among them a series of portraits of a mother, her young daughter and her daughter's doll increasingly veiled until they fade into the black background - appear as part of the National Museum of Women in the Arts' newest exhibition, 'She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World.'"

This all depends on whether you're reading the sequence from left-to-right or right-to-left. My impression is that, like with writing, it's meant to be viewed from right-to-left, and that they're coming *out* of darkness.

In The Post's photo, these are displayed in 3 rows of 3; at the museum, they're displayed in 1 row of 9. My impression is that this must be read right-to-left, and you can't split it up into rows like they did in The Post.

[DIShGo]

6 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

This all depends on whether you're reading the sequence from left-to-right or right-to-left. My impression is that, like with writing, it's meant to be viewed from right-to-left, and that they're coming *out* of darkness.

In The Post's photo, these are displayed in 3 rows of 3; at the museum, they're displayed in 1 row of 9. My impression is that this must be read right-to-left, and you can't split it up into rows like they did in The Post.

I viewed them from right to left. I think the collection makes a more powerful statement seen this way. From across the room, I noticed their eyes peering out from beneath their burkas. As I drew closer, I realized the eyes of the infant were those of a doll. It made me curious to see them revealed.