Amir Hamza the Lover and the Dancing Zebra

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Amir Hamza the Lover and the Dancing Zebra

1977
Time Based Media
Single-channel video
Duration: 00:22:21
Gift of the artist (M.2017.240)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

...
This animation presents a traditional tale of magic, villainy, and thwarted love, and visually blends nineteenth-century furnishings and costumes with contemporary (1977) elements. It includes a segment of a dancing zebra, actually an enchanted princess, whose stripes move uncannily with her body. The figure of the horned demon who bewitched the princess was based on Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, Iran’s prime minister from 1965 to 1977.
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Bibliography

  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.