It’s no coincidence that the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ exhibitions “Nicky Nodjoumi: The Personal is Political” and “Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time,” on view through March 23 in San Francisco, were coupled together. The intentions of YBCA Curator Amy Kisch are clear: The two— Nodjoumi’s paintings created over 15 years, and Hagigat’s paintings, prints and etchings spanning six decades—complement as much as they contrast each other.
The artists, who are married to each other, were born in Iran during World War II, spending their infancy and young adulthood under the rule of the country’s final shah. They followed their artistic ambitions to the U.S. (they live in New York) but never strayed too far (emotionally speaking) from their homeland. They reacted to both the Iranian revolution—and the West’s hypocritical role—on a visceral level reflected in their work.
Yet those reactions almost feel as opposite as night and day.
Nodjoumi, who traveled to the U.S. during the turbulent 1960s, internalized the anger he shared with oppressed people fighting for civil rights. His work is confrontational and lacking in subtlety.
Hagigat’s work, at first glance, doesn’t seem overtly political. But the fact that most of her work has feminist themes carries immeasurable political weight. “Etched in Time” as the name indicates, is a collection of etchings by the veteran artist, who has been working since the 1970s. Her rudimentary illustrated works are elevated by the simple addition of repetition and/or accentuation.
The monochromatic young girl of “Sara & Simorgh” (1978) stands out against the rainbow-colored phoenix whose winged form takes up most of the canvas. “Escape” and “Escape 2” (both 1975) are among the collection’s works to focus on the feminine body, specifically, the naked feminine body. Both are colorless and heavy on shadow, with a skyline suggesting the woman in each is running naked through a rainstorm. “Feet” (1972) features the silhouette of a woman in a burqa against a reddish-orange background. Even without the contrasting colors, her body nearly resembles an amorphous blob with the titular feet the only distinguishing human shape.
Lest anyone think Hagigat’s work takes no overt political stance, large the acrylic-on-canvas “Church Front” (2009) dispels such minimizing. The piece is a monochromatic painting of a bare tree, the only color provided by a piece of paper caught on a branch. A statement 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” combine both an abundance and lack of color to celebrate feminine harmony and satirize masculine tropes that disintegrate at the slightest resistance. They whisper from the constrictions of an omnipresent patriarchy and sometimes even seem to suggest that embracing queerness would be a most productive use of masculine passion, as in 1978’s “Lovers.”
Nodjoumi’s political stances are evident, as in a 1972 short film, “Power to the People,” in 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 additional pressing problems (“unemployment,” “Black people’s struggle,” “Women’s liberation”, etc.) appear around them, he uses the whip to lash them away. Our good uncle is finally felled by a Black Power fist crushing him to a pulp.
Again, not subtle.
While many of Nodjoumi’s works have been lost, either censored and/or destroyed by Western and Iranian governments, the acrylics in this exhibition are mostly from the past decade, with bright colors and cartoonish characters traced over actual political figures, striking at the West’s profit from Middle Eastern instability. They are powerful, but do not have the nuance of the color-on-monochrome clips of his lost work.
Nevertheless, Nodjoumi’s shouting and Hagigat’s whispers emphatically give voice to a people who have been considered collateral damage to their oil-rich homeland.
“Nicky Nodjoumi: The Personal is Political” and “Nahid Hagigat: Etched in Time” are on view through March 23 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., San Francisco. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, free for ages 12 and under 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 more. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.wordpress.com.