Purdahs of Silence II( from Confidence series #8 )

2009-2010

by Ali Ettehad

“Whence doeth the good commence? Where lays the border separating the observer I and the subject of Evil? Till when will thine celestial headsprings seethe? Wherefore is my wickedness eternal?Who made thy purdahs? Who was the one who made my image? Up to where will my steps, bare or with leggings, come towards thee and up to where back towards me?”

“pardeh” refers to different meanings in Farsi; it could be interpreted as pardehs of an instrument: here “pardeh” means fret; it also means: curtain, hijab and tableau. That’s why I chose the word Purdah, because of its origin in Sanskrit literature; and

that there is a similar word in English: “Pardaa” which has the same roots. “Purdahs of silence” was an installation accompanying a long time performance. By entering the gallery; audience would encounter a covered space in white and a couple of tableaus hanging on the walls. Both tableaus were the artist`s self-portraits and some parts of Sohrevardi`s dissertation about existence were printed on the margins.One of them was named “Anghia” and the other “Ashghia” which are the pretexts of holiness and evil. The artist has put himself in both these opposite situations and there were proportionate embroideries on these images chests.

Purdahs of silence

“Purdahs of silence”, silkscreen and embroideries, edition of 1 + 1AP, 2009-2010

In the main spot of the gallery and between four columns covered with white sheet except the front face, and on the ground which was covered by sands; seated the artist all concealed in the same white fabric as the columns and in front of him was a book-rack with an empty book and a Tanboor (a music instrument) with no strings.A hand shows up for a minute and pages through the book; or plays the silent instrument; then leave it on the sands; creeps behind the covers and struggles again to escape from that white cocoon.This performance was held for six days and every day for four hours. The sixth day which is the last one sheds the blood from inside; the blood that was supposed to penetrate the fabric completely but failed to do so.

Shown in a solo show “Purdahs of silence (Confidence#5)”an installation and a performance, Azad Art Gallery,Tehran, Iran, 2009

The detail of embroideries

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The detail of embroideries

Tabula rasa (Latin: blank slate) is the epistemological thesis that individuals

are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Generally proponents of the tabula rasa thesis favour the «nurture» side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects of one>s personality, social and emotional behaviour, and intelligence. The theory of tabula rasa was developed more clearly by the Iranian philosopher, Ibn Sina (known as «Avicenna» in the Western world).He argued that the «human intellect at

birth is rather like a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know» and that knowledge is attained through «empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts» which is developed through a «syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts.» He further argued that the intellect itself «possesses levels of development from the material intellect (al-‘aql al-hayula,ie), that potentiality that can acquire knowledge to the active intellect (al-‘aql al-fa‘al), the state of the human intellect at conjunction with the perfect source of knowledge.»

Shown in a group exhibition, Three generations – 90 selected artists representing 3 generations of contemporary art, Art Center, Tehran, Iran, 2009 and “summer show”, Permanent collection of Silk Road gallery, Aug. and Sep. 2010

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The text says: “Me keeping silent is not the result of my not being able to speak/keeping all the arrows behind the shield is my hidden agenda”.[saeb tabrizi (the poet) 1607-70A.D]

After the last election in Iran the rally’s of silence were held in Tehran and other cities by protestors for two weeks. Millions of people walking without saying a word reminded one of the Iranian 11th century poet’s metaphors. Experiencing such rally is something beyond words.Azadi Square, Tehran, Iran, Summer 2009

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After the last election in Iran, one of the most popular slogans among protesters was based on a verse of Quran: “victory from Allah and an opening that is near” [Chapter 61: AS SAFF (THE RANKS) - verse 13]

Shown in a group exhibition, “Recent Self-portraits” (curator: Samaneh Roghani), Silk Road Gallery, Tehran, Iran, 2010 and “summer show”, Permanent collection of Silk Road gallery, Aug. and Sep. 2010

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The text says: “Shame on you! the ground you are walking on is still burning with warmth of my blood!” [abu saeed abolkheir (the poet) 967-1048 A.D](in Persian script there are so many letters which look quite the same except the dots and points that is mandatory so that it could be read. In this text the artist removed all the dots so the text becomes hard to read)

“Rostam and Sohrab” is one of the most celebrated stories in Shahnameh. It is the story of a father who kills his son whom he has never seen by the command of king. After killing the young hero he would recognized his son by the bracelet on his arm; the bracelet that his mother gave to him. The father who kills his son sightlessly by the command of government is a known archetype in Iran’s history which has been repeated again and again either metaphoric or realistic. What is written on the margins of this piece is the beginning of this sad story.

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The swastika (from Sanskrit: svastika) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form or its mir-rored left-facing form. Archaeological evidence of swastikashaped or-naments dates from the Neolithic period. In Iranian ancient culture and beliefs, swastika is a symbol of sun and generally Mithr.

There are two signs for promise (Mithr) in old times of Persia; a ring to be hold in left hand; and an earring in the left ear

The Esfandyar of legend is best known from the tragic story of a battle with Rostam (The Great Iranian hero), as described in Ferdowsi’s epic Shahnameh, or The Book of Kings. It is one of the longest episodes in the epic, and one of its literary highlights. When Esfandyar swam in the pool of i vincibility, he kept his eyes closed, and it is through these that the young prince can be vanquished.

Pleading respite to dress his wounds, Rostam withdraws, where he learns of Esfandyar`s secret and of his weakness: when Esfandyar swam in the pool of invincibility, he kept his eyes closed, and it is through these that the young prince can be vanquished. Upon hearing this, Rostam fashions a fork head arrow and a twig of a tamarisk tree, and when the battle resumes the next morning, Esfandyar is slain by a shot through the eyes.

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shown in Abu Dhabi Art 2010, represented by Silk Road gallerythe piece is being collected by Emirate ministry of culture

“The great wisdom answered: ‘ O my son, Frashaostra! It takes its seat near the head, singing the Ushtavaiti Gatha (a Part of Gatha) and proclaiming happiness: “Happy is he, happy the man whoever he be!” ‘On the first night, his soul sits in Good Words; on the second night, it sits in Good Deeds; on the third night, it goes along the ways (to Garo-nmana)”.[Zend Avesta – Fragments, Fragments 5 (Vishtasp Yasht), verse 54]

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shown in Abu Dhabi Art 2010, represented by Silk Road gallery

Discovering the first oil well in Iran (Masjid Suleiman 1908) by English company ran by William Darsey was the first step toward the direct colonialism of Iran. The man in the image is holding a board which is the document of this well’s ownership.

What is written in the margins is one of Molana’s stories in Masnavi. In this story the medics do whatever they can to cure a patient; but in spite of all their effort the result is disastrous.Molana used this metaphor; water instead of killing the fire acted like oil making it more aflame. This piece was made in the anniversary of Iran’s oil revolution.

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In Persian literature tulip is a metaphor for blood. Thus in the past 100 years and during demonstrations; so many poets have used this word as a metaphor for martyrs. That is how during three past decades and after the Islamic revolution it has become the official symbol for martyrs; and it has been frequently used in governmental ad-vertisements. During these two decades, each time there has grown a protest against governments or politicians; they had arranged a ceremony to hold the respect of the martyrs of the war between Iraq and Iran. Claiming to have found bodies of this war in the desert; there have been caravans of thousands of coffins covered with Iran flag and a tulip at the chest of each coffin.

Text says:II the tulipRed, red and thirstyNever to be quenched of the blood of you and your companions.You worship me; you worship me in each verse of your psalmI who have the scarlet letter at my chest, but I drink of your veins to the last drop of your blood.My leaves search under your skin to find the capillaries that hide the last drops of your blood.I am the tulip! And each and every calycle of mine has been drinking of your bloodNot at night, nor at day and not even for a moment even for a blink of an eye, my thirst for the succulence of your blood will be goneNever to be quenched from the sweet liquid of your veins; and each time you forget my presence, even for a moment; I will be showing you the long row oflifeless and dried bodies.

This piece is the story of songs that “suppression” never let them to be composed.

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Text says:

Each one of my odeseach verse of our psalms;melts into the air; Turns into steamBecome cloudsThe clouds which would never rain; everword for word of my sonnetsletter for letter of our odesmelt away; mixing togetherThe wind will blow all your words awaythen you have to swallow the unwrittensheets of your sonnetsto swallow your sonnetsthe sonnets you were never allowed to writeAnd what you have writtenbehold; is blowing away with the windthe wind will blow it all away even if youtruss your sheets with a stoneYou have to swallow the white sheets ofyour sonnetsyou are convicted to swallow all the blank

papersall the papers of the sonnets you were neverallowed to writeYears have passedand Years are to comeWord for word of your odeswill be blown away by the windnot to the place that one day Perhaps oneday You can find themThe rhymes will be fading awayone by oneEither the ones you have gold writtenor those you have graved on stonesthe wind will blow all your letters awayAnd you have to swallow all the unwrit-tensheets of your sonnetsto Swallow themSheet for sheet

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This piece directly refers to “silence”. The ordinary margins of Old Persian scripts have become a frame for nothing; not even decorating them. Thus they have become the frame for the “non-existed” script. The red color of the shirt and the hidden face in the frame refers to the badge of shame* or the scarlet letter that this time portrays the word “I”.

A badge of shame, or simply a stigma, is typically a distinctive symbol required to be worn by a specific group or an individual for the purpose of publichumiliation or persecution. Under the Poor Law Act of 1697, paupers in receipt of par-ish relief were required to wear a badge of blue or red cloth on the shoulder ofthe right sleeve in an open and visible manner, in order to make life more humiliating for the poor.

On ConfidenceBy: Kiarash Alimi - Fall 2010

Third Caption Image: No.3: Purdahs of silenceII (From Confidenceseries #8). More of a contemporary expressio towards Iranian ongoing bclash up on national petrol industries, Ettehad recalls a cause of his disorien-tation as he himself has imaginarily lost his identity by a tradition.

“Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone!Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks!Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius!Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen!Moloch whose name is the Mind!”Allen Ginsberg - Howl - Part Two

Ettehad could be seen as the final chapter of eastern mystical esotericism since his work features the whole codex of his ancient Iranian Mithraic heritage merged inside an individual post-modern identity.He begins to narrate with the modus operandi ofancient Persian words, he begins to talk out e ery man’s daily promises in the 21st century.Every time he creates a work he tends to act as

a recorder to capture sensible everyday notions of humanity, he utilizes ancient elements and textual turbulences most known from Iranian ancient manuscripts dating back over three thousand years of his own ancestry.Thus, to understand his body of works means to be at a stage where one can break all of the social codes and understand the sense beyond these pictorial presentations. Using this course, both Ettehad and Persian Mithraic traditions,are trying to differentiate their audience in terms of their symbolic knowledge of confidence. Right at this point, he separates his way and makes a complimentary path along with his ancient counterpart.For both of them the communication begins with the knowing of a secret. “The secret defines a silent text made out of unspoken words”. The Mithr is no longer the key notion to the whole universe.since it nor can be used as a knowledge or understanding towards the cosmos neither it can be considered as a still and unbreakable facility in the life of men, the secret is the self-consciouness of each individual about the covenant that had been earlier established between the teacher/master and the student.The practice of confdence is primry power of intuition. Confidence is a key to the cosmos itself. The amount of being involved with the truth of confidence calls for a difference between certain types of readers. The master himself is integrated through the confidence. The student is far more distant to the core of confidence. Very similar to the codex of classified information, one might be categorized as either ‘Ahl1’ or ‘Gheir2’.Ahl is the native to the secret and Gheir is the other. Ahl for mithr means “I” and so for the confidence and Gheir tries to divulge the ‘I’ whom both the ancient figures are offering as truth. The differentiation circle begins from a spot in the center which is the mithr itself and continues towards infinity. The outer border of the circle encompasses even the lifeless entities. Confidence as an absent supposition or a secret written in the heart of devotee, recalls the world of “knowers” and present - Hai3 - as ‘the other’. Hence, both Ettehad’s and his some thousand year old ancestors are suggesting the truth as the speaking spiritual centrality of the world.

Contemporary practices (visual arts the Middle East), Vol. VIII, 2011

Fourth Captio Image: No.4: Purdahs of silenceII (From Confidence series #8). Translatio of the original text: Shameo you! The ground you are walkingo is still buring with warmth of my blood! [abusaeed abolkheir (the poet) 967 1048 A.D]

The continuation of such textual activity relies on something outside the circle and the text.On the postmodern edge of the matter, Ettehad is very similar to what our age calls the fragile state of history in the mind o f every living bing. It may seem strange to find similarities between his work and that of artists like Boltanski.Once in the heart archive, exhibited in Serpe tine gallery, London, some years ago4, Boltaki repeated his very prominent role of “H” and “h”. He believes the big H narrates the meaing of the history, Fourth Captio Image: No.4: Purdahs of silenceII (From Confidence series #8). Translatio of the original text: Shameo you! The ground you are walkingo is still burning with warmth of my blood! [abusaeed abolkheir (the poet) 967 1048 A.D] something that can actually be grasped through Althusser’s writings on the philosophy

of history5 when he announces the epistemlogical coupe of history by the exchanging nture of science of history.Ali Ettehad has shown a very interesting body of diaries along with his confidence “core” sries. He narrates the exact same sense of history/lived experience in either a whole expression in a series or as an important part of some of his more Mithraic pieces. From his deceptive code of Ah r e e m a n 6 t h r o u g h t h e s i l v e r o x i d e 7 o f r i v e r p l a t e s a n d w a t e r f i e l ds to his performances and videos he seeks to put this very fragile nature of existence into the centre of the confidence circle. The Ahl becomes the absolute self-conscious lived experience along with the famous old devotion.Ettehad’s works can be easily divided into a diarylike body, which consists of his personal readings of the social events of his time, focusing on the communication between the author and the reader. Once again he sets the circular plan of confidential information access. He puts a social code in its native appearance for the readers to discover. It is nearly impossible to understand the truth beneath the plates without having experienced it in some way. His dot-less texts and references through Iranian contemporary history are among these diaries. Also, while referring to ancient manuscripts, printing theexact or manipulated miniatures or using acient texts, he declares his text to be woven amidst the roots of ancient Persia.In two of his recent shows, The artist Ettehad clarifies the separate identities between the nature of these two factions. In the first series, dating back to the post election trauma in Tehran, where he lives, he tends to speak through his own wounds: the eight year Iraq war, everlasting petroleum crisis and chain murders are among these wounds. He has found similarit ies between the secret of the plates - the secret that will not be corrupt even in the absence of the peoples faces – and the secret of a text from Iran’s modern literature describing events in literary confidence. The faces of people in the illustrations are empty, pointing to a void other.

First Caption Image: No.1: I which empty space are you standing (From Confidence series #7). The original plateis narrating the famous courtof Muslih-id-di Sa di Shirazi, namely one of the most controversial representations ofdeity i Islamic justice. While the image refers to a actual date i history the removed faces are calling the subject to bea-mono potent antithesis to this historical narrative. Later i each encounter on e develops a unique notio of this historical event and the subject of thènarrative gets decentralized through rereading. The text alsois a verbatim of Golshirys investigations by revolutionary guards during the chai murders as areference to both the latter and the repetitiv nature of Irans history.

Second Captio Image: No.2: which empty space are you standing (From Confidence series #7).Two lovers their death bed is a very formal plot of a tragedy. The familiarity of such tale illuminates the repetitive nature of tales i general as well as signifying the exotic concept of terror as the essence of a self conscious state. The text belongs to the murder of Forouhar and his wife,also i chai murders. Ettehadrefines his notio of the social in-terpretatio of history once again by having it exposed througho the freewill of each individual while facing the empty sapces i the Negarehs. The exact locatio of the text i reference is noted i the piece.

As an invitation (TO WHAT?) he brings a massive load of empty portraits for his audience to fill with his/her will in order to begin a journey to discover their confidence. Each part of the storyline narrates the concluding nature of the set regarding two facts. The first fact is the similar “play” in which History is shaped - texts, pitures and signs - and the consistency of the confidence in every role. Each individual can go as far as he/she wants in confidence and secrecy, it does not matter who he/she is in the text.In the more diary like series of his recent Purdahs of silence he is not about to put an end to the senses, nor is he trying to conclude a vast field of ancient and current knowledge. He speaks a daily concern: The betterment of men towards the confidence. Being involved with spells and mysticism as one’s spiritual journey towards confidence in the one hand and having a tremendous focus on the disastrous future of Iran in the other, Ettehad awakens a sense of responsibility.Purdahs of Silence is a manifestation of his prophecy: To call the whole universe a jewel for us to keep with total consciousness, a truth that can never be corrupted.Throughout the text, there are words similar to their usages in western art writing traditions - the Other, the Native, the Absolute etc. They have been carefully selected and the similarities are of intention.

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PREVIEW

good feedback about last year’s fair,” says the gallery’s

Kiarash Ghavidel. Bringing works by Avant-garde

painters and photographers such as Ali Ettehad and

Bahman Jalali, the gallery hopes to “promote some

of our new artists as well as established ones, and

of course that there will be interest from museums,

serious collectors and institutions.” As Agial Gallery’s

Saleh Barakat said, for most galleries the aim is to

“build a continuous presence on the Abu Dhabi

art scene, consolidating our relationship with the

museums, curators and supervisors.” This is a senti-

ment echoed by Ray Waterhouse of Waterhouse

& Dodd, one of the galleries to have a booth both

inside the ballroom, as well as in the Signature Sec-

tor. “We have always done well in Abu Dhabi – last

year we had lots of interest, made some new clients

and got new commissions.” Bringing a selection of

international artists including Jean-François Rauzier,

Patrick Hughes, Karine Sabine Krommes, Shadi Gha-

dirian (Canvas 3.1) and Faisal Samra (Canvas 1.2), the

gallery is upbeat.

The line-up is promising. With many galleries

focusing on a carefully curated mix of established

and emerging artists, ADA 2010 is off to a buoyant

start. “I think any gallery hopes to achieve the same

thing,” smiles Carey-Williams, “to build a network,

to continue the network we already have in the

region, open up possibilities for collaboration in

the future with other artists and galleries, become

more established in the region in terms of major

collecting individuals and institutions and, ultimate-

ly, at the end of the day, sell a picture or two.”

Abu Dhabi Art 2010 runs from 4–7 November at Emirates Palace. For more information, visit www.abudhabiartfair.ae

“Abu Dhabi Art is a very well-managed fair.” Ali Bagherzadeh, Xerxes Art

www.nabatt.com

Supported by The Ministry of Culture and Information, Saudi Arabia

Organised by Cube Arts London

Nabatt_Canvas_v3.indd 1 09/08/2010 13:16

Canvas, Vol. 6, Issue 5, September/October 2010

“Purdahs of silence”, digital print on canvas, edition of 1 + 1AP, 2009-2010

Confidence series by Ali Ettehadwww.aliettehad.com