Women, Life, Freedom comes to Cityscape Community ArtSpace, July 7 to August 26
New exhibition celebrates and gives voice to Iranian women
Women, Life, Freedom. Saghi Ehteshamzadeh, Natars, Detail, 16”x20”, Mixed media, 2023.
North Van Arts presents Women, Life, Freedom at Cityscape Community ArtSpace from July 7 to August 26; opening reception on July 6 at 7 pm
A NEW EXHIBITION by North Van Arts celebrates Iranian women while giving them a platform to share their stories of injustice, courage, and hope. Women, Life, Freedom also sheds a light on inequality that women face all over the world.
The show takes its name from the global movement that sparked following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in police custody in Iran in September 2022. The international outcry, and the show at CityScape Community Art Space, both underline the need for women’s fundamental human rights in the nation, which they have been denied for generations.
Curator Saghi Ehteshamzadeh, a local queer interdisciplinary artist, uses art as a form of activism to bring awareness to their home country and the deplorable injustices women there face, just as art has played a role in the broader female-led Women, Life, Freedom revolution in Iran.
Working across cinema, visual art, and video art, Ehteshamzadeh has spoken at Capilano University’s Catalyst: Art as Activism conference; they have also directed video art series called The Journal, a personal look into what they call the futuristic-nostalgic era we’re living in. The latter won the Best Screenlife award from Vancouver’s Small File Festival 2022. Another series, My Femininity Grows, explores how Ehteshamzadeh has made amends with their femininity after years of deploring it while living under Iran’s oppressive regime. .
“My art serves as a testament to the bravery and resilience of Iranian women who have fought against oppression and inequality,” Ehteshamzadeh says in their artist statement. “This exhibition is an invitation for you to join us in this contemporary feminist movement, to add your voice to the chorus of those who resist oppression and to stand with Iranian women fighting for their freedom.
“Let us unite in solidarity, joined in our quest to create a future where all women can live free from constraint and celebrate the beauty and strength of Iranian women….The women of Iran have been denied their fundamental human rights, robbed of their bodily autonomy, and unable to live their lives to the fullest. But in the wake of the tragic murder of, a powerful force rose up. The remarkable women of Iran refused to accept the injustice any longer and began the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement.”
Among the other artists involved are Seattle interdisciplinary creative Audineh Asaf, who takes inspiration from a video of a young woman in Iran boldly dancing in the street, shedding and burning her headscarf in protest; Ece Asitanelioğlu, an emerging artist from Istanbul; Vancouver’s Kate Arkiletian, whose uterine sculptures represent the power of the feminine; and Goli, who makes photo collages exploring Iranian girls’ school mandatory donning of the hijab. Also showing works are Elmira Sarreshtehdari, Kiana Shahnia, Laleh Javaheri, Mina Saneei, Moozhan Ahmadzadegan, Nazanin Khalili, Roselynn Sadaghiani, Sanaz Haeri, and Yasaman Moussavi.
See North Van Arts for more information.
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