Singapore out!
I was due to perform power of Cliche at the M1 fringe festival in Singapore this January and I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately I was forced to cancel the event because of a report written in Singapore's Business Times, where the reporter and the head of the festival decided to build an interesting profile for me which was entirely untrue. The article claimed that I had left Iran because of the unrest in the country, an odd claim specially as I gave them a written interview and told them this was not the case.
I asked for a right to reply which the venerable and democratic singapore business Times refused, and that was when i decided i would rather not take part in a Festival which manufactured situations around their artists for publicity with a flagrant disregard for their safety or the truth, and I would rather not perform my performance which is all about the power image-making can have on our lives specially women, in a country that gave us the cute pert servile "SIngapore Girl" as an ad campaign.
So no to M1 Fringe Festival and no to Singapore for me!
And I thought Singapore had managed to find a happy place between East and West and to create a model which we could look to, like having a free press. But they seem to have taken the outline of the idea of a free press and stripped it of the fundamental principle that makes it so precious,namely, the right afforded the subjects used, to reply to false claims. Evidently not.....very disappointing Singapore! You keep your festival and your press!
Change in Edition numbers on chadornama and Chador-dadar
Dear friends,
I have decided to reduce the edition on my pictures in the chadornama and chador-dadar series.
The old universal edition of 40 on these photographs are now reduced to a total of 25 which will be broken down in editions of 15 for all 75x50 cm prints and any sizes below and an edition of 10 on all large sizes above 75x50.
This change will make these collections into a tighter collection in line with standard editions used for similar works.
For all those friends who bought works with the old edition numbers, I can send new stickers with the new edition number which they can stick to the back of their work instead of the old one. Please let me know if you would like a new sticker sent out to you by contacting me either on this website address or on halehanvari@yahoo.com with your full postal address.
Power of Cliche in Germany
'Power of Cliche' was chosen to open the Frauensperspektiven 2009 Festival at Karlsruhe in Germany.
A recorded version of the performance was used to launch the festival which looked at Iranian women, their issues and their artwork amongst many other interesting events which began just before the Persian New year celebrations in March.
Power of a Cliche at the Barbican
Power of a Cliche was performed live at
The Barbican's PIT cinema on the 7th of December. It was a sold out house which was gratifying. Germaine Greere pulled out at the last minute as the chair for the after performance discussion but Jonathan Steele of the Guardian stepped in as chair and Salma Yaqoob of Birmingham council also attended as planned. We had a lively chat about perceptions surrounding the Hejab and the importance of choice for the women who were it.
Article in The New Statesman on Iran New Voices Videos
2008-12-14
Guardian Article about Iran New voices
2008-12-14
Interview in The Guardian UK
2008-12-14
Iran New Voices at The Barbican London
'Power of a Cliche" which was presented for the first time in its original format at the AlRiwaq Gallery in Bahrain in 2006 is now going to London's Barbican as part of BITE 08's mini season of Iranian Theatre.
The performance will be on the 7th December . The link below will tak you to more information:
2http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=7634008:
Thirty Years of Solitude at Asia House
Our Exhibition 'Thirty Years of Solitude' Curated by Faryar Javaherian opened at Asia House at the end of September and will be up until 10th January.It showcases the work of 30 Iranian women photographers and film-makers.
My talk 'Persian Politesse and the Art of Camouflaged Expression' was delivered on the 24th October and expolred the Iranian reluctance for direct speech and its effect on artistic output specailly amongst women.
we're up!
July 4 2008 finally after over a year of sitelessness this site is almost nearly up. Pictures will be added slowly but surely. I've started uploading the chadornama series and you should be able to see chador dadar in the next week or so.
sorry for the delay to those of you who've been asking to see the photos on the net, hope I see you here often.
H
