BURLINGTON — "Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography from Iran" is a 21st-century counterpoint to the romantic "Imagining the Islamic World: Early Travel Photography from the J. Brooks Buxton Collection."
The complementary exhibitions at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum are time passages of place and culture.
"I knew we were going to do both shows," said Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, curator of collections and exhibitions at the University of Vermont.
"I knew I would do 'Persian Visions' first. This show features the work of 18 contemporary artists who live, work and exhibit in Iran and Europe. The subject matter is really varied. The thing most striking for me about the exhibition: the Western images we receive of that part of the world through the media are of a really war-torn country. In the news, we see every day our growing and mounting tension with that country."
"Persian Visions" is a respite from that war spin.
"It's an individual vantage point," DeGalan said. "Themes are common to everyone: aging, death, media and gender. It was really refreshing. Not all the images are of the turmoil going on around them and the difficulties with the West. Artists are working on art form. They were taken by Iranian photographers. They could stand on their own as contemporary photography."
Gary Hallman, co-curator and associate professor of the Department of Art, University of Minnesota, writes:
"The universal appeal of art is powerfully mediated both by the culture producing it and by the culture in which it is received. Of all the art forms, the medium of photography delivers detailed specifics that make cultural differences all the more interesting. The artistry presented in this exhibition is crafted by some of the most renowned and articulate photographers of Iran. Its fortunate arrival (in the United States) is most timely because of our growing interest in — and distance from — the breathtaking beauty of the Islamic art."
Sixty works of photography and video by Iran's most celebrated photographers comprise "Persian Visions."
The exhibition was developed by Hamid Severi for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran, and Gary Hallman of the Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.
"There are images ubiquitous for that part of the world — images of veiled women," DeGalan said. "Artists play with the motif of veiled identity. Is it the women's choice or men imposing that on them?"
"Persian Visions" has evoked a positive response.
"People are really generally hungry for contemporary art, especially contemporary art in a country like Iran. So much negativity is focused on our relationship with that country. People are pleased to take a bit of a leap or risk," she said.
Initially, patrons thought the exhibition would be political and not very happy. "Persian Visions" is attracting visitors beyond the Green Mountains.
"It's one of the first shows of this kind of material touring in the United States," DeGalan said. "It's post-revolution. This is the first time they've seen contemporary works from this country."
Many expected works by photographer Shirin Neshat.
"She's not in this show," DeGalan said. "That was a conscious decision. She lives in the United States. She doesn't live and work in Iran anymore. We're screening a film of hers. It's important to have her presence somewhere, though her work is not physically in the exhibition. These artists live and work and spend their daily life navigating and negotiating their country."
Email Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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