- Title
- Always In Our Thoughts
- Date Made
- 2010
- Medium
- Metal wire, cloth, glass, digital prints
- Dimensions
- Height: 82 11/16 in. (210.03 cm) each; Diameter: 22 1/16 in. (56.04 cm) each
- Accession Number
- M.2012.120a-d
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
- Curatorial Notes
Deported from Iraq to Iran at the age of six, and a member of the youth militia in the Iran-Iraq war as a teenager, Sadegh Tirafkan experienced loss at an early age. In this remarkable piece he remembers those lost to him by referencing the hijla, an Iranian tradition of erecting temporary shrines to commemorate the dead. The commemorative structure is suggested by, among other things, the use of colorful strips of cloth, which allude to bits of fabric tied by visitors to the hijla in remembrance of the loved one. Tirafkan here extends the meaning to encompass family and friends still living from whom he was separated by distance or circumstance; it is they who are pictured in the photographs. This work was originally commissioned for the LACMA exhibition Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts (2011-2012).
- Selected Bibliography
- Komaroff, Linda. Gift Tradition in Islamic Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2012.
- Komaroff, Linda. Gifts of the Sultan: the Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011.