A little over a year ago, in September 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran by the Iranian government’s morality police for wearing her hijab improperly. Three days later, she was dead. Eyewitnesses reported that she was severely beaten immediately following her arrest, which led to her eventual death three days later. The ensuing protests and demonstrations from an outraged and heartbroken public were the largest in the country since 2009, and they informed a new body of work by Iranian-Australian artist Ramak Bamzar.
“Pro Femina is an acknowledgement of sacrifice and a celebration of the women who have lost their lives in the 21st century just for basic freedoms,” says Bamzar. “People who are not just names and hashtags but real, living and vital souls.”
The works are presented alongside Bamzar’s 2022 series Moustachioed Women and Rhinoplastic Girls—an exploration into the religious dogma, gender inequality and censorship the plagues the women of Iran.
Shown as part of the the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB), the emotionally charged collection is made from carefully constructed settings that reference the cultural history of the country, as well as canonical features of portraiture throughout art history. Art Gallery of Ballarat director Louise Tegart describes how Bamzar “Weaves together traditional Iranian and Western imagery to tell a harsh story of violence against women in Iran. Her works hit home and bring these stories of heroism and resilience to the viewer in a very immediate way.”
View, in pictures, Ramak Bamzar’s tribute to the strength and struggle of Iranian women—those who have been lost, and those who remain and remember them.
Ramak Bamzar, Scene 1 from the series Pro Femina, 2023. Pigment inkjet print on paper © Ramak Bamzar
Ramak Bamzar, Scene 2 from the series Pro Femina, 2023. Pigment inkjet print on paper © Ramak Bamzar
Ramak Bamzar, Scene 4 from the series Pro Femina, 2023. Pigment inkjet print on paper © Ramak Bamzar
Ramak Bamzar, Leila from the series Moustachioed Women and Rhinoplastic Girls, 2022, Pigment ink-jet print on paper © Ramak Bamzar.
Ramak Bamzar, The Last Princess from the series Moustachioed Women and Rhinoplastic Girls, 2022. Pigment inkjet print on paper © Ramak Bamzar
Ramak Bamzar, Parmida I from the series Moustachioed Women and Rhinoplastic Girls, 2022. Pigment inkjet print on paper © Ramak Bamzar
Pro Femina
Ramak Bamzar
Art Gallery of Ballarat
On now—5 November
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