Exhibition until the 30th March 2008 @ Arnolfini, Bristol

Stevenson’s exhibition encompasses an installation that revisits the site of an Iranian week-long celebration, held for the success of the countries prospering economy amongst the ruins of the ancient Persian city of Perspolis by Shah of Iran in 1971. The artist has reconstructed part of what was the temporary architecture at the celebration, yet depicts it as a ruin by displaying a scaffolding structure representing a derelict tent, with tarnished material and flags hanging from it and sand scattered across the floor.

As one walks through, you can compare the contrast in Iran’s success from then to now; as what was once a national gesture, is yet a ruin piling on top of a ruin and a forgotten memory. In the following room you can hear the sound of the celebration as a projector plays moments from the party. The experience is somewhat peculiar and ghostly, yet you feel yourself drawn to imagining what it would have been like for the Iranians at such a time. The festival was fairly Westernised, as people such as Merce Cunningham, Carl-Stockhausen and Andy Warhol participated and Warhol was the portrait artist of the monarchy. To draw attention to the westernisation of Iran in the early 1970’s, is a print of Warhol’s portrait of the Shah of Iran.

The design of the installation is somewhat avant-garde and the contrast between the then and now creates a sense of melancholy, making the audience aware of the futile situation Iran is in now with war.

www.arnolfini.org.uk

Selina Orrell