It’s no coincidence that the Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts’ exhibitions “Nicky Nodjoumi: The Personal is Political” and “Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time,” on view by way of March 23 in San Francisco, had been coupled collectively. The intentions of YBCA Curator Amy Kisch are clear: The 2— Nodjoumi’s work created over 15 years, and Hagigat’s work, prints and etchings spanning six a long time—complement as a lot as they distinction one another.
The artists, who’re married to one another, had been born in Iran throughout World Battle II, spending their infancy and younger maturity underneath the rule of the nation’s remaining shah. They adopted their inventive ambitions to the U.S. (they reside in New York) however by no means strayed too far (emotionally talking) from their homeland. They reacted to each the Iranian revolution—and the West’s hypocritical function—on a visceral stage mirrored of their work.
But these reactions nearly really feel as reverse as night time and day.
Nodjoumi, who traveled to the U.S. throughout the turbulent Sixties, internalized the anger he shared with oppressed individuals preventing for civil rights. His work is confrontational and missing in subtlety.
Hagigat’s work, at first look, doesn’t appear overtly political. However the truth that most of her work has feminist themes carries immeasurable political weight. “Etched in Time” because the identify signifies, is a group of etchings by the veteran artist, who has been working because the Seventies. Her rudimentary illustrated works are elevated by the easy addition of repetition and/or accentuation.
“Escape” and “Escape 2” are amongst works in “Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time” on view at Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts by way of March 23, 2025. (Picture by Charlie Villyard/Courtesy Nahid Hagigat/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts through Bay Metropolis Information)
The monochromatic younger woman of “Sara & Simorgh” (1978) stands out in opposition to the rainbow-colored phoenix whose winged type takes up many of the canvas. “Escape” and “Escape 2” (each 1975) are among the many assortment’s works to concentrate on the female physique, particularly, the bare female physique. Each are colorless and heavy on shadow, with a skyline suggesting the lady in every is operating bare by way of a rainstorm. “Feet” (1972) options the silhouette of a lady in a burqa in opposition to a reddish-orange background. Even with out the contrasting colours, her physique practically resembles an amorphous blob with the titular ft the one distinguishing human form.
Feminist themes are obvious in works together with “Sara and Simorg,” at left, in “Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time” on view at Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts by way of March 23, 2025. (Picture by Charlie Villyard/Courtesy Nahid Hagigat/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts through Bay Metropolis Information)
Lest anybody suppose Hagigat’s work takes no overt political stance, giant the acrylic-on-canvas “Church Front” (2009) dispels such minimizing. The piece is a monochromatic portray of a naked tree, the one shade supplied by a bit of paper caught on a department. An announcement by the artist reads: “When a tree’s leaves fall, it stands naked against the hardships. Rain, snow, wind. It withstands anything that falls upon it. [..] I think bare trees have a connection with women’s power. Women create. Usually men destroy.”
Works in “Etched in Time” mix each an abundance and lack of shade to have fun female concord and satirize masculine tropes that disintegrate on the slightest resistance. They whisper from the constrictions of an omnipresent patriarchy and typically even appear to counsel that embracing queerness could be a most efficient use of masculine ardour, as in 1978’s “Lovers.”
“Power to the People” is among the many forceful works in “Nicky Nodjoumi: The Personal is Political” on view at Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts in San Francisco by way of March 23. (Picture by Charlie Villyard/Courtesy Nicky Nodjoumi/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts through Bay Metropolis Information)
Nodjoumi’s political stances are evident, as in a 1972 quick movie, “Power to the People,” by which Uncle Sam gleefully wields a cat o’ nine-tails as he orders bombs to fall on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. When the titles of further urgent issues (“unemployment,” “Black people’s struggle,” “Women’s liberation”, and many others.) seem round them, he makes use of the whip to lash them away. Our good uncle is lastly felled by a Black Energy fist crushing him to a pulp.
Once more, not refined.
Whereas lots of Nodjoumi’s works have been misplaced, both censored and/or destroyed by Western and Iranian governments, the acrylics on this exhibition are principally from the previous decade, with shiny colours and cartoonish characters traced over precise political figures, hanging on the West’s revenue from Center Japanese instability. They’re highly effective, however don’t have the nuance of the color-on-monochrome clips of his misplaced work.
However, Nodjoumi’s shouting and Hagigat’s whispers emphatically give voice to a individuals who have been thought-about collateral injury to their oil-rich homeland.
“Nicky Nodjoumi: The Personal is Political” and “Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time” are on view by way of March 23 on the Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts, 701 Mission St., San Francisco. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for college students and seniors, free for ages 12 and underneath at ybca.org.
Charles Lewis III is a San Francisco-born journalist and performing artist. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and extra. Dodgy proof of this may be discovered at The Considering Man’s Fool.wordpress.com.
