Iran US Collaboration: Emotional Numbness: The Impact of War on the Human Psyche and Ecosystems

Artists Beyond Boundaries Tribution (Kachin) Myanmar

“Emotional Numbness, the Impact of War on the Human Psyche and Ecosystems”

This exhibition is in Tehran, Iran, but available to see anywhere!

It is a collaboration between US based group WEAD, Women Eco Artists Dialog and artists in Tehran, Iran.

You can see two excellent online tours of the exhibition  here is a direct link to one from the WEAD website : a simulation of the gallery that enables you to stop at each work and learn about it, the second is a physical tour of PLATFORM 3 Gallery in Tehran.

Two curators one in Oakland, Minoosh Zomorodinia and one in Tehran, Atefeh Khas, collaborated on the complex logistics required to put the exhibition together. The physical exhibition is in Tehran, the WEAD artists sent their work there, and surprisingly, almost all of them made it through to the show.

“Emotional Numbness” includes over forty artists. Their work is intense, given the theme of the exhibition. They include many two dimensional prints (given the limitations of shipping to Tehran), videos, sculpture and installations.

To name just a few: there is an interview with a 95 year old holocaust survivor (Kolya Grokhovsky The Future is Bright). ( the woman on the right in this video screen shot, she tells a story of how she survived barely, when many in her family did not.

an homage to the artist’s grandmother and a young man who died in the Iran/Iraq war. (Sara Madander  In Memory of Aziz). The installation shot here gives the flavor of the Tehran gallery as well as the several parts of this installation which included the carpet and a video as well as an image of a window with a lacey curtain. The video of the full installation is on the artist’s website. Aziz is the artist’s grandmother and the artist’s mother kept her mother’s home just as it had been when she died. The portrait is of the artist’s uncle Ahmed, who disappeared into the war at the age of 17, leaving without saying good-bye after being brainwashed, as the artist suggests, in school.

What we see here is a  haunting segment of a recreation of her grandmother’s home.

(Artists Beyond Borders Tribution (Kachin)

Artists Beyond Borders collaborates with other artist in projects world wide that address the impact of war.

Here they present people of Myanmar displaced by war  carrying gigantic bullets as they flee. This artist partnership ( Pamela Blotner and Mie Preckler) believe that art must bring more than “Awareness to the table, that if humankind is to take a part in averting war. …we need to have a collective effort”

Alice Dubiel  Domestic Violence/The War on Terror: Military Archeology 2 (JBLM)

Seattle-based artist Alice Dubiel addreses sexual violence on military bases Alice Dubiel  Domestic Violence/The War on Terror: Military Archeology 2 (JBLM);”The US Military maintains over 800 bases world-wide . . . the text consists of geography. social context, history and description of Join Base Lewis McChord.  . .   reports of detailed domestic violence are particularly graphic. ”

Nazli Abbaspour How many births are we given to die so repeatedly installation in Tehran

Nazli Abbaspour honors soldiers who die in wars.

In the installation video you can see a brief haunting close up of some of the photographs of soldiers taken before they go off to die.

Gazelle Samizay and Labkhand Olfatmanesh in Bepar call attention to the impact of war on children’s play, in this case hopscotch. As a young person tries to play hopscotch, the sounds of war, the impact of war, and the destruction of war surround and overwhelm her. The artists use various metaphors to suggest the violence.

Farzaneh Najafi The War of the Oil installation view in Tehran platform 3 ( screenshot)

Farzaneh Najafi creates this compelling installation of oil drums focusing on  “Oil, this black gold is the motive for seizure and plunder of many lands all over the world.” She includes emphasis on the devestation of the environment of Iran, and the related economic impacts of sanctions .

Verona Fonte Syrian Refugee Camp “Escape from Fire: The Migration Crisis of the 21 century”

Verona Fonte’s dramatic image with its hands grasping a wire fence in the foreground conveys to us the desperation of refugees. The lives of these people is hard  for us to grasp in its deprivations.  “the images reflect the tribulations and tragic circumstances faced by the multitudes of people displaced by war, poverty and global warming” You can see the rest of her series here. https://veronafonte.jimdofree.com/portfolio/fine-art-digital-prints/

Jeanne Wilkinson Bloodlake 2

Wilkinson speaks forcefully to many of the issues in the show:

I depict a world filled with blood, lit by a sun that has become a source of darkness rather than light . . . a benumbed child stands on rocks that have become cold and sterile under his feet, his world no longer one of sustenance and color, but depleted and drained. This is how I see the earth and our place in it as wars, weapons, pollution and the greed that drives all these forces to grow and proliferate. It’s as if we are filling the earth with our blood while draining our own existence of life and light.”

There are many more incredible works in the show. The range of aesthetic approaches united by this powerful theme tells us the universality of the theme and the nightmare we are in today as Congress passes another 740 billion dollar defense bill that is beyond our understanding in its colossal size. The 908 billion stimulus bill for the current COVID catastrophe is a little larger, but in limbo. Wouldn’t it be  exciting of the defense bill monies went to correcting the environmental catastrophes caused by war and specifically the US military.

And as I write the escalation of rhetoric about Iran and military “preparedness” in the Gulf, is also horrifying.

As our public media demonizes Iran, the dialog between these Iranian and American artists on the healing power of art is inspiring. I cannot recall another exhibition that brings together war, the military and violence against both women and the planet.