We don’t envy the panelists who had to decide the winner of this year’s Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative. They had to make an impossible choice between three finalists including Levon Kafafian’s futuristic costumes and textiles, Parisa Ghaderi’s Iranian protest collages, and Bakpak Durden’s time-traveling paintings.
In the end, Ghaderi was announced as the 2023 Envision winner, but the work of all three artists will continue to be on display at the University of Michigan Stamps Gallery until July 29.
In Ghaderi’s For dancing in the streets exhibition, she addresses the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran that erupted in 2022 after 22-year-old Jina Amini died in police custody. She had been arrested by Iran’s “morality police” for “improperly” wearing a hijab, and witnesses reported that she was beaten by officers.
Ghaderi took found images of recent protests in Iran and made a series of collages overlapped with video footage of people who have been killed during the unrest dancing. In the photos, women aim their fists at the sky, while some put up their middle fingers or peace fingers. Chaos erupts in the streets in one corner of a collage, while women dance defiantly in another.
The large-scale collages are accompanied by audio of Ghaderi reciting the names of the 597 people who lost their lives between 2022, when the protests began, and January 2023.
The room in Stamps Gallery that holds Ghaderi’s work feels cold and melancholy with her recital of the names adding an eerie soundtrack even if you’re unaware of what’s being said.
The exhibition’s name comes from Iranian singer Shervin Hajipour’s song “Baraye,” which he wrote based on reasons that Iranians have said they are protesting. This includes, “for dancing in the streets” and “women, life, freedom,” which has become a protest chant synonymous with the movement. Haijpour was arrested shortly after the song’s release.
Ghaderi’s exhibition is a somber reminder of how women's bodies continue to be grounds for political warfare but are also used as a means of resistance.
Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative selected three finalists out of roughly 300 contemporary Michigan artists to show their work at the Stamps Gallery while a panel of jurors decided the winner, who will receive a $5,000 prize.
This is the initiative’s second year and the judging panel included president and Neil A. Barclay, CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Art; Shannon Rae Stratton, executive director of Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency; and Nayda Collazo-Llorens, winner of the inaugural Envision Award.
“Ghaderi skillfully weaves her interests in feminist struggles, archives and diasporic aesthetics that reference the rich legacies of history paintings and documentary photography, resulting in a multidisciplinary work that is a testament that art is a powerful ally of social movements building solidarity and envisioning a world that is based on justice, empathy and mutual respect,” the panel of judges said in a statement.
Ghaderi previously co-curated an exhibition of original artwork from Iran called Inner Fragments: Contemporary Iranian Women Artists which traveled to the University of Michigan, Detroit’s Norwest Gallery of Art, Michigan State University, the University of Maine, and others. She also recently directed a performance on the border situation in the U.S. for Iranian immigrants. She is a visual artist, filmmaker, and assistant professor of graphic design at Michigan State University.
Where to see her work: For dancing in the streets is on display until July 29 at the University of Michigan Stamps Gallery; 201 S. Division St., Ann Arbor; stamps.umich.edu/stamps-gallery. Ghaderi will give an artist’s talk on July 27.
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