Siamak Filizadeh
Harem2014

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Siamak Filizadeh
Iran, born 1970
Title: Harem
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.2016.138.13
Classification: Photographs
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial Notes: Details of Nasir al-Din’s family life and lovers are preserved in a variety of sources, his own photographs of the royal harem among them. Women, and not only his domineering mother, Mahd Ulya, but also several of his wives, left their mark on his reign. Here the artist imagines the harem as a bordello, although the shah is more interested in his rabbit than in the temptations of his wives. In addition to Jayran and Anis al-Dawla, who stand provocatively in doorways on the lower level, on the upper floor, two other women, seemingly nude and posed in a sexualized manner behind sheer curtains, have their availability signaled by green elevator-like arrows above their windows.
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

Related Unframed

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Siamak Filizadeh
Iran, born 1970
Title: Harem
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.2016.138.13
Classification: Photographs
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial Notes: Details of Nasir al-Din’s family life and lovers are preserved in a variety of sources, his own photographs of the royal harem among them. Women, and not only his domineering mother, Mahd Ulya, but also several of his wives, left their mark on his reign. Here the artist imagines the harem as a bordello, although the shah is more interested in his rabbit than in the temptations of his wives. In addition to Jayran and Anis al-Dawla, who stand provocatively in doorways on the lower level, on the upper floor, two other women, seemingly nude and posed in a sexualized manner behind sheer curtains, have their availability signaled by green elevator-like arrows above their windows.
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