Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel

I finally got out to see an exhibit! Since I have been lying low during the pandemic, I have rarely ventured into a gallery. But since I was meeting my old chum B., we decided to take in an exhibition. 

Rebel Rebel was a good choice. The Curve at the Barbican is a unique space which begs the visitor to take a journey. Sokhanvari has installed her paintings of a range of iconic Iranian women along its length, the small egg tempera pieces placed on a backdrop of geometric patterns recalling traditional Islamic art work. 

It's a sumptuous mix of pop art, portraiture and Iranian cultural history, as the artist places her subjects, among them directors, singers and actors, against vivid backdrops of rugs, curtains and walls all brilliantly coloured and patterned. The names were all new to me but well known in their times: Delkash was the first woman to cross dress on screen. Kobra Saeedi was an actor and writer who decried sexism and now lives in obscurity. Ramesh was a pop singer who fused genres. And many more besides.

At the end of the space is a giant mirrored screen showing some of the films of the subjects. When one reads the biographies of these amazing women it is sobering to hear how often their voices were silenced by the 1979 revolution. Some emigrated, some were imprisoned and others disappeared from view. Many died young. The triumph of the exhibit is to see them rendered as bursting with life and in full voice. 

Rebel Rebel continues until 26 February 2023 at the Barbican Centre in London. 

Intervals

Visitors to Intervals by Ayse Erkmen; photo: Val Phoenix

Paying a visit to the Barbican yesterday, I swung by The Curve to check out the new exhibition, only to find I was too early, an unusual occurrence for me. But, when I returned after 11 am, I was greeted by an open door leading down to a screen covering the space. Hmm, I thought. This could be a short visit. I hovered uncertainly at the top of the stairs, wondering if I was allowed to venture closer. As I registered the wall text accompanying the exhibit, the invigilator drew my attention to a brochure that he said had the same text. I took the brochure, read the wall text and ventured in, as the screen lifted to reveal another.

This is Ayse Erkmen's intriguing installation, Intervals, making clever use of The Curve's position and shape as part of the backstage area of the most complex complex, The Barbican. A series of painted screens lifts and falls, drawing the visitor in and keeping one there for the duration of the randomly sequenced movements. I joked with the invigilator, "Has anyone gotten stuck?", to which he replied, "Not for long." I found it an entrancing experience, gazing on the elaborately painted screens, imagining the works that had prompted them, everything from Italian opera to modern dramas.

But, when I reached the eighth screen, I was puzzled. The brochure described it as inspired by the work of Turner, but the green leaves on the screen bore no resemblance to the brochure's description. As the screen lifted, I saw the next one over looked more Turner-esque and also depicted stairs, which would make sense if it was inspired by Turner's The Grand Staircase, From the West. Once I could get under that screen, I sought out the nearest invigilator to check, and he was none the wiser. I wondered then about the next few, as to whether they were correctly named, as well. In the end, we concluded that 8 and 9 (Turner and Morris) had been switched in the brochure, if not on the wall caption at the start. Funny nobody had noticed this before!

A bit of backstage mystery never went amiss. Other visitors didn't seem to take such a close interest in the individual screens, striding under them, or in the case of the many kids, approaching at high speed and doing a stop, drop and roll. My knees aren't up to that at present, but it was certainly a high-energy approach to art.