Theory of Survival Publication/ Arts at CIIS/ Fall 2015

Theory of Survival: Fabrications was organized by Taraneh Hemami at Southern Exposure Gallery in from September 5 to October 25, 2014, with Morehshin Allahyari, Ali Dadgar, Ala Ebtekar, Amir H. Fallah, Arash Fayez, Hushidar Mortezaie, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Sanaz Mazinani, Amitis Motevalli, Haleh Niazmand, Azin Seraj and Taravat Talepasand.

Historical Memory as Aesthetic Practice: Iranian Diasporic Artists Interpret a Revolutionary Archive.

Manijeh Nasrabadi

If remembering is always a subjective act then it is also al- ways a political act, for the selectivity of memory (including Above, from left to right: Dozd Bazaar, by Hushidar Mortezaie; I stand with, by Amitis Motevalli; Revolusign, by Ali Dadgar; Below: Theory of Survival: Fabrications; Architectural Design by H. Majd that which is forgotten) can be understood as an individual, Design Group; at Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall 2014, San Francisco, CA unpredictable response to multiple relations of power. When it comes to traumatic events—such as revolution, dislocation, anti-racist and anti-Vietnam war organizing that shook Ameri- and war—such responses are matters of survival; some people can society, this movement is virtually unknown among those work hard to forget while others cling to moments in the past as who study U.S. social history of that era. if their lives depended on never letting go. Sometimes memory Like many American activists, the ISA was deeply influenced by is unruly, refusing to submit to the will of the conscious mind, anti-colonial revolutions across the Third World, especially those like a restless ghost with its own agenda. One way or another, in China, Cuba, and Vietnam. A significant number of its mem- truths are shaped through this disjointed relationship with the bers went on to join underground leftist parties, returning to past. Conclusions are drawn about what was and what might Iran to participate in the 1978–79 revolution. Despite nuanced have been, and each has political implications for the stance differences in ideology and strategy, these parties overwhelm- one takes towards the future. ingly supported Khomeini’s rise to power, never imagining that Theory of Survival: Fabrications turns the politics of memory into the faction he led would soon utilize the resources of the newly both a research question and an aesthetic challenge. Thirteen formed state apparatus to hunt them down one by one. The vio- diasporic Iranian artists from different generations and back- lence was extreme, practically eradicating an entire generation grounds were invited to engage with an archive of the Iranian of Marxists. The Left’s miscalculation of Khomeini’s intentions Students Association (ISA), the anti-Shah student movement and of its own role in the revolution has been used to discredit that mobilized thousands of young people in the U.S. through- its legacy and to cut later generations off from its radical gene- out the 1960s and 1970s. Though the ISA was involved in the alogy. Silence was often all that remained—the silence of offi-

1 lution” itself was cleansed of its opposi- ed to look like a round piece of flesh Fabrications confronts the tional connotations and invested with pierced by a bullet. It is worth pointing viewer with a collection of the disciplinary authority of the state out that both of these artists have fam- that ruled in its name. ily ties to the Tudeh era of the 1940s, memories that move through If feelings of guilt, despair, isolation when Iran experienced the growth of a different moments in time, and disorientation made it difficult for mass communist party for the first time. fabricating the objects the leftist veterans of the revolutionary This longer genealogy of radicalism ap- necessary to get us there moment to speak about their aspirations pears in Niazmand’s work in the form of and losses, the generation that came handwritten poetry by famous dissident and back. after was also denied any kind of col- writers such as Forugh Farrokhzad and ment unfold through the digital ephem- lective, public reckoning with this lega- Khosrow Golsorkhi, found among her era that helped to sustain it, the memory cy—if they knew about it at all. Hence father’s papers and now reproduced as of what might have been is preserved, the significance of Fabrications, which text stitched into the fabric of her ele- much in the way the yellowing pages encourages personal encounters with gant chiffon dresses. Mortezaie includes of ISA literature constitute evidence an ISA archive and collects them in one selections from his father’s archive of of a different vision of revolutionary place. Assembling these individual in- Tudeh-era works by leftist literary fig- transformation that never came to pass. stallations in a group show format high- ures such as Nima Yushij and Samad Ala Ebtekar, inspired by the exhibition’s lights the heterogeneity of diasporic Behrangi, whose faces are printed on invitation to engage with a revolution- engagements with—and relationships pillows with ropes tied around their ary archive, delved into his own family to—a shared traumatic past, as each necks. Though they did not live to see history and discovered that his relatives artist makes a distinct statement about the events of 1979, Yushij and Behran- had collected and maintained an audio what it means to look back. At the same gi nonetheless helped to radicalize that archive of revolutionary songs and news time, however, the multiplicity of images generation of revolutionaries. broadcasts from 1979. He remixed these and sounds, the juxtaposition of histori- Since much of the ISA’s activity was tracks onto cassette tapes—the mass cal and contemporary cultural referenc- focused on exposing U.S. support for technology of the time that was widely es, and the diversity of aesthetic sensi- the torture and execution of dissidents used to spread anti-Shah propaganda— bilities generates a milieu in which the in Iran under the Shah, it should come sometimes adding his own voiceover viewer can become immersed, drawn as no surprise that blood was a central as English translation, in order to “(re) first to one display and then another motif in the group’s printed propaganda. consider the moment when the future based on whatever catches the eye— Hemami engages with this repetition cial histories (in both the U.S. and in Iran) Top: Theory of Survival Gift Shop, by Taraneh Hemami; of Iran was as hopeful as a high school much like in a bazaar. through formal reproduction of every- that represent the revolution as “Islamic” at Fabrications, Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall 2014 mix-tape.” This is intentional, of course, as the day objects; for example, she copied a in a monolithic and axiomatic sense, and It is perhaps this desire for reapprais- Some people work hard to artistic visionary behind the project, graphic of a single drop of blood from the silence of those struggling to hold al of the impulse towards revolutionary Taraneh Hemami, set out to make a pop- an ISA pamphlet and produced refrig- their heads above an ocean of grief. forget while others cling to transformation that forms the most co- up bazaar full of objects that blur the line erator magnets, and she silkscreened a The former ISA members who sur- moments in the past as if their herent theme of the exhibit and that between art and commodity, harness- more elaborate glob of multiple drips vived and returned to the U.S. found approaches something like a politics of lives depended on never ing the ambivalence, irony and provoca- onto throw pillows and handkerchiefs. themselves among a growing popula- remembering. Rather than a collective letting go. tion of the Pop Art tradition. The viewer As if to belabor the point—and evoke tion of exiles, many of whom held the memory of a hidden history, Fabrications is invited to touch each object as a con- the rhetorical style of the movement it- anti-Shah student movement partly to confronts the viewer with a collection of sumer would examine the merchandise self—she manufactured and displayed blame for creating the conditions which memories that move through different in a shop, attaching complex desires to the variously shaped drops and drips forced them to leave. Pro-Shah sympa- moments in time, fabricating the objects its form and function, imagining oneself found throughout the archive as glossy, thies predominant among the post-79 necessary to get us there and back. wearing or using it in one’s everyday life, candy-apple red wall ornaments, their Iranian immigrants, and the virulent an- Ali Dadgar’s wall of protest placards inspecting the item up close for possible ghostly shadows hinting at the horrors ti-Iranian sentiment that swept U.S. soci- seems to reaffirm the need for mass purchase. It is this closer inspection that they were initially intended to represent. ety in the 1980s, left little room for the action today by presenting images and disrupts the comfortable familiarity of a Not every artist makes such explicit public mourning of martyred comrades. slogans referencing the current moment shopping experience and offers instead use of the images found in the books, Nor was there space to express the an- of U.S. drone warfare and Israeli occupa- a confrontation with an archive of pain pamphlets, and leaflets that make up ti-imperialist fervor that had animated tion of Palestine, while simultaneously and suffering. the ISA archive. Indeed, several artists the ISA and that was now wielded by the engaging in a critique of slogans that ex- The red sequins on that glittering jack- work with different archives altogether, Islamic Republic to justify its persecution press the nationalist ideologies of both et cut like something Michael Jackson such as Moreshin Allahyari’s “#AsYou- of dissidents. Anyone who opposed its the U.S. and Iran. might have worn on stage, turn out to ScrollDown,” which recreates the imme- policies was labeled a Western-backed The shrewd ability to look askance at each be Houshidar Mortezaie’s sartorial rep- diacy and urgency of the 2009 “green” spy, a threat to the self-determination of these nation-states is what makes Fab- resentations of bullet wounds oozing uprising in Iran by collecting the 100 of the Iranian people. The word “revo- blood. That elegant necklace adorning most retweeted tweets from those days Top to bottom: #AsYouScrollDown by Morehshin Allahyari; 2Die4 Right: Activist Uniform, Dozd Bazaar/Bootleg Identities, by a mannequin in Haleh Niazmand’s “2 of hope and turning them into a vinyl au- by Haleh Niazmand; Concurrency, by Azin Seraj; Mixed Tapes, Hushidar Mortezaie; at Fabrications, Southern Exposure, Fall 2014 Die 4” booth features a pendant craft- dio recording. As you listen to the move- by Ala Ebtekar; at Fabrications, Southern Exposure, Fall 2014 2 3 ber those connections today? Theory of Survival: Fabrications provokes such questions by, in the art critic T.J. Demo’s Fabrications of Collective Organized Chaos words, “invent[ing] archives capable of unleashing the hidden potential of his- Christian L. Frock torical consciousness.” 1 The viewer is asked to look again, to listen again, and In a recent performance at San Fran- exhibition-cum-Persian bazaar-cum to remember—the bloodshed and cisco’s alternative art gallery Southern -maker faire featuring 13 California- failure, yes, but also the desire for Exposure, Oakland-based Iranian artist based Iranian artists’ booths stocked freedom and justice that survives. Ali Dadgar asked the audience of some with items inspired by the largely stu- 60 people to pull out their cell phones dent-driven collective activism that de- 1 T.J. Demos. The Migrant Image: The Art and and, when signaled, to play the first veloped during the 1979 Iranian Rev- Politics of Documentary during Global Crisis. song in their music library at top vol- olution. All of the work in Fabrications Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013. ume. A slightly puzzled and somewhat references the visual culture of resistance Left: Revolusign by Ali Dadgar; self-conscious group followed his lead, while challenging the boundaries of Center: Islamic Youth, by Taravat Talepasand; and soon the gallery was filled with a consumer culture. at Fabrications, Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall 2014 mash-up of discordant music, the volume The exhibition is anchored by This essay is titled after Ali Dadgar’s performance tempered only by the limitations of cell Hemami’s ongoing consideration of a “Collective Organized Chaos” (pictured above) on September 27, rications a distinctly diasporic aesthetic a visual expression of Iranian student phone speakers. historic archive of underground publica- 2014, as part of Taraneh Hemami’s exhibition Theory of Survival: engagement with traumatic events. activists’ identification with the U.S. Civil The resulting noise wouldn’t exactly tions assembled by the Iranian Students Fabrications at Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA There is no lesser evilism here: Iran is not Rights Movement by stitching a scene stop traffic, but it could, for example, dis- Association of Northern California (active represented as more or less repressive of police violence against ISA mem- rupt business as usual in, say, a bank or a 1964–1982). The archive presents a por- before versus after the revolution. The bers on one side of a large, black flag, polling place. Members of the audience trait of Iran and the Bay Area during the United States is squarely implicated, not and a scene of a police attack on Afri- looked around, smiling at one another years between the 1953 C. I. A. -led coup, only during the era of its alliance with can American members of the Student as they realized the simplicity of the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, the Shah, but also as an ongoing source Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Dadgar’s performance, titled “Collective and the U.S. Hostage Crisis. of militarized and racialized violence. (SNCC) on the other. While the black vel- Organized Chaos”. In a matter of minutes, It is easy to imagine living with some This approach is reminiscent of the ISA’s vet flag may remind the viewer of a Shi’a they had participated in a group action items, such as Taravat Talepasand’s Is- political culture, in which anyone strug- religious ceremony, what is being com- with nothing more than their phones. lamic Youth, a line of rock ’n’ roll -inspired gling against U.S. imperial and domestic memorated here is the way in which the True, it wasn’t exactly a crescendo: It clothing that depicts Islamic women in repression was considered an ally wor- experience of state violence worked to was merely a hint at the possibilities, chadors. Other items are more challeng- Above: Dozd Bazaar/Bootleg Identities, by Hushidar Mortezaie; thy of support. Amitis Motavelli creates generate solidarity between the ISA and Left: Teahouse, by Taraneh Hemami; with Shaghayegh Cyrus, Sanaz but that, really, is all that it needed to be. ing, such as Hushidar Mortezaie’s “Dozd the Black liberation movements in the Mazinani, Haleh Niazmand, Amitis Motevalli; at Fabrications, Below: Why are Wet Materials Transparent; by Arash Fayez; part of 60s and 70s. Dadgar’s performance was part of a Bazaar: Bootleg Identities”, which fea- Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall 2014 Fabrications’ Night Market performances on October 18, 2014, at What then might it mean to remem- series of evening events called Night tures bling’d-up hostage hoods, or Haleh Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA Markets, associated with Taraneh Hemami’s Niazmand’s “2 Die 4”, which presents wounds. As much as the work in Hemami’s Theory of Survival: Fabrications, an jewelry made to look like sculpted bullet Fabrications reflects on collective activ- Manijeh Nasrabadi is a writer and scholar ism and a specific historical moment in of American Studies, with particular empha- Iran, it also interrogates the integrity of sis on Iranian student activism in the United States. Former co-director of the Association consumerism and the role of cultural ar- of Iranian American Writers, her essays and tifacts. articles have appeared in Comparative Stud- Seeing Fabrications, I was reminded of ies of South Asian, Africa, and the Middle the furor around this year’s debut of East, Social Text online, Jadaliyya, the National September 11 Memorial tehranbureau.com, and Callaloo. & Museum, where much of the contro- versy was driven by the juxtaposition of loss and commerce. The gift shop’s por- celain cheese plate in the shape of the U.S. with tiny hearts depicting the 9/11 attack sites instigated an uproar in the media. The plate was quickly removed from inventory, but not before it raised important questions about the hazy pa- rameters of taste, the moral integrity of Above: I stand with (detail), by Amitis Motevalli; at Fabrications, Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall 2014 tchotchkes, and the commoditization of

4 5 jects by virtue of being art, as opposed would also be regarded with greater explorations into underground Iranian to functional or ordinary objects—this controversy in another setting. political dissent are predicated on col- was demonstrated by artist Michael The objects in Hemami’s booth at South- lective systems of institutional support Rakowitz’s 2011 project “Spoils”, a cu- ern Exposure, titled “Theory of Survival and she has worked in residence in linary-political performance piece uti- Souvenir Shop”, challenge many of the numerous institutions around the Bay lizing plates purchased on eBay and same conventions at play in the gnarly Area. While artist-in-residence at Califor- believed to have belonged to Saddam debates around the objects for sale in nia College of the Arts’ Center for Art and Hussein. the 9/11 museum gift shop or the plates Public Life in 2005– 2006, she put out a As a result of news coverage about in Rakowitz’s performance. Indeed, call to the Bay Area Iranian community cultural memory. Rakowitz’s art project, the plates were Hemami’s work asks difficult questions to gather archival material—the archive Certainly context plays a role in the returned to Iraq at the request of the about both commerce and cultural Iranian Students Association of North- discussion—given the fraught tensions State Department, but not before they memory. Her ceramic plates with pixi- ern California was brought forth in the of the site of the gift shop, it makes were seen by some 700 viewers and lated portraits of “martyrs” of the Iranian process. sense that the cheese plate, or another participants. Seen as art, the cultural Left —some 4,000 executed activists— She later used another opportunity at item for that matter, would become a significance of the plates in Rakowitz’s are presented alongside decorative to organize the resulting archive, loaded topic. Had the plate been pre- performance were regarded complete- throw pillows and refrigerator magnets which is now catalogued in the Persian sented in an art gallery, it seems unlikely ly differently than they were in another depicting oozing blood. All of the ob- Studies department of the Library of that it would have generated the same context—a similar kind of impact and jects are beautifully crafted, while simul- Congress. During this project, Hemami controversy. Art often enables difficult accessibility can be found in Hemami’s taneously evoking disturbing narratives. became aware of the fracturing between conversations about challenging sub- art projects featuring materials that Images from the Iranian Students’ armed resistance and nonviolent tactics historic archive reflect the universal in the Leftist movement leading up to language of resistance and speak to the revolution. From this, her recurring many recent political upheavals, in- investigations into “theories of survival” cluding the global Occupy Movement; have spun an ongoing multimedia por- the demonstrations in Turkey’s Taksim trait of modern dissent. Square; the protests that erupted in “The project at large,” she said, “is to Ferguson, MO, after the police shooting organize a dialogue between different of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year- generations of activists. My interest lies old African American man; and Hong less in the details of theory, but rather is Kong’s youth-led Umbrella Revolution. focused on the many thousands of stu- The image of a raised fist is a recurring dents who were politically active in the icon of solidarity — it can be found student movement.” Hemami’s commit- Top left: Theory of Survival Gift Shop, by Taraneh Hemami; above: Top right: Failure, by Amir H. Fallah; Center right: Convergences, by throughout Theory of Survival: Fabrica- ment to this incendiary moment in Irani- Playing backgammon with Convergences, by Gelare Khoshgo- Gelare Khoshgozaran; Below: Conference of the Birds (Flags), by tions, just as it can be seen in images of an history extends the work of her revo- zaran; projected image: Why are Wet Materials Transparent, by Sanaz Mazinani; at Fabrications, Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall protests around the globe today. The lutionary predecessors while expanding Arash Fayez; at Fabrications, Southern Exposure Gallery, Fall 2014 2014 fist motif is evident in Hemami’s work, the audience for stories of tactical resis- including powder-coated aluminum tance. wall sculptures and a free rubber-stamp As the tools for global amplifica- station where visitors can stamp their tion become both more sophisticated own cards. For the artist, who was born and more accessible, historic dissent and raised in , the project is a finds renewed relevance, as it is adapt- path towards understanding her own ed for newer technologies. Moreshin obscured personal history and a way to Allahyari’s project for Hemami’s bazaar place these stories in the broad history is titled “#AsYouScollDown” and features of activism. vinyl records pressed with the top 100 Collective action runs a thread through re-tweeted posts during the recent pro- Hemami’s larger body of work, both tests known as Iran’s Green Movement in theory and in practice. Her ongoing 2009–2010. Allahyari’s records demon- strate a shared sensibility with many of Top: Head Theologian, Dozd Bazaar/Bootleg Identities, by Hushidar the offerings in Fabrications, while tap- Mortezaie, Middle: Anonymous (Plates), by Taraneh Hemami; Bot- ping into newer social networks and tom: Connecting Hisotry to the Present; workshop in collaboration means of distribution, as did Dadgar’s with Arts at CIIS, facilitated by Manijeh Nasrabadi, Milton Reyn- orchestrated cell phone performance. olds, Pireeni Sundaralingam and Ignacio Valero; October 5, 2014, at Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA By reconsidering a significant cultu- 6 7 al moment in Iranian history, Hemami’s Theory of Survival: Fabrications provides a new lens through which to consid- er present-day global protest and the forms it might take. In a time when peaceful assembly and civil disobedi- ence are often met with brute force, Hemami’s work provides a timely re- minder: A song, or a tweet, as it were, might be innocuous on its own, but met with the power of a collective chorus, it has the power to change history.

Christian L. Frock is an independent curator and writer. Frock’s creative practice interro- gates the intersection of art, daily life and popular culture through the presentation and examination of public art and interven- tions, site-specific installations, avant-garde publications and multiples, and alternative spaces.

Select material from this essay was extracted Bulletin, a Theory of Survival publication, is from my article titled “Reconsidering Resis- produced as part of Taraneh Hemami’s resi- tance: Taraneh Hemami at the Luggage Store,” dency with The Arts at CIIS (California Institute published by KQED Arts on January 25, 2013. for Integral Studies), made possible by the The original is archived online at http://ww2. generous support of CalHumanities. kqed.org/arts/2013/01/25/reconsidering_re- sistance_taraneh_hemami_at_the_luggage_ store/ (Sourced December 3, 2014). Theory of Survival projects engage with a historical archive belonging to the library of Bottom left: #AsYouScrollDown, by Morehshin Allahyari; Bottom the Iranian Students Association of Northern right: Concurrency, by Azin Seraj; Top: Stamping table, Theory California (1964-1982), recently acquired by of Survival Gift Shop, by Taraneh Hemami; at Southern Exposure the Library of Congress (2009). Gallery, San Francisco, Fall 2014 Photo Credits: Christian L. Frock, Catherine McElhone, HsiangLu Meng, and Rahele Zomorodian.

Theory of Survival: Fabrications, a Creative Capital project, was additionally funded by Center for Cultural Innovation, San Francisco Arts Commission, California College of the Arts, and Southern Exposure. Above: Original design for Theory of Survival: Fabrications, by MacFadden & Thorpe, Fall 2014

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