Siamak Filizadeh
Shah and the British Ambassador2014

Not on view

Heavily stylized color photograph of two figures in elaborate theatrical costumes inside a crumbling ornate room, one seated wearing a tall crown, the other standing in a red military coat with shredded trousers

Artist or Maker: Siamak Filizadeh
Iran, born 1970
Title: Shah and the British Ambassador
Date Made: 2014
Medium: Inkjet print
Dimensions: 59 1/16 × 39 3/8 × 1 1/4 in. (150.02 × 100.01 × 3.18 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Kitzia and Richard Goodman through the 2016 Collectors Committee
Accession Number: M.2016.138.5
Classification: Photographs
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial Notes: One of the many challenges of Nasir al-Din’s reign was the escalating interference of England and Russia as each sought control over traditional Persian territories. A pair of prints (see M.2016.138.6) ironically emphasizes the shah’s impotence against such foreign domination, personified by the ambassadors. Here, the British ambassador uses a leash and whip to control the shah, feminized and sexualized by black lace stockings.

The sexualized depiction of the shah references a letter the artist found supposedly written by Nasir al-Din Shah in a moment of desperation in his dealings with England in which he notes he did not want to succumb to their greater power by behaving like: “a loose woman who gives in as soon as she is asked to remove her underwear.”
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Siamak Filizadeh

Siamak Filizadeh
Shah and the British Ambassador2014

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Siamak Filizadeh
Iran, born 1970
Title: Shah and the British Ambassador
Date Made: 2014
Medium: Inkjet print
Dimensions: 59 1/16 × 39 3/8 × 1 1/4 in. (150.02 × 100.01 × 3.18 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Kitzia and Richard Goodman through the 2016 Collectors Committee
Accession Number: M.2016.138.5
Classification: Photographs
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial Notes: One of the many challenges of Nasir al-Din’s reign was the escalating interference of England and Russia as each sought control over traditional Persian territories. A pair of prints (see M.2016.138.6) ironically emphasizes the shah’s impotence against such foreign domination, personified by the ambassadors. Here, the British ambassador uses a leash and whip to control the shah, feminized and sexualized by black lace stockings.

The sexualized depiction of the shah references a letter the artist found supposedly written by Nasir al-Din Shah in a moment of desperation in his dealings with England in which he notes he did not want to succumb to their greater power by behaving like: “a loose woman who gives in as soon as she is asked to remove her underwear.”
Selected 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.