Persepolis Part II

Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of the Middle East
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© Sadegh Tirafkan Estate
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
© Sadegh Tirafkan Estate
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
© Sadegh Tirafkan Estate
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
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Persepolis Part II

1997
Time Based Media
Digital video and chromogenic development (Kodak) print
see individual records
Purchased with funds provided by the Farhang Foundation (Iranian-American Heritage Foundation of Southern California), Nina Ansary, Frank Burgel, and Joshua L. Mack (M.2008.114.1-.3)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

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Sadegh Tirafkan was born in Iraq and forcibly repatriated to Iran by Saddam Hussein in 1971. Through his photographs and videos, Tirafkan, like other Iranian artists of his generation, captures a society caught between the present and the past. This theme is at the heart of his "Persepolis" series, set amid what was once Iran’s greatest imperial city, destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C. Tirafkan uses this locale as a symbol of Iran’s past glory and of the struggle to retain traditional Iranian cultural values. The rhythmic sound of feet crunching on gravel enhances this eloquent meditation on the contemporary Iranian’s relationship to the past and quest for an identity in the present—is he going backward or forward?

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