lectual and conceptual forget how my profespassions, Rahbar has sor there told me, “Put also produced a series a glass of water on a of American flags conshelf and back it up structed from strips of with text and argubeautifully ornate anments and you get an ‘I am not political. I cover contemporary events. I am tique Middle-Eastern A. Do a painting the not an activist. I am not anti-anything. I am only pro.’ textiles. Another series size of this classroom, of self-portraits show with no story, you fail.” Rahbar wearing variA pretty painting is deous flags as a hijab. sign.’ I am not an interior designer, and that’s what a lot of Yet Rahbar eloquently argues that she is not solely a artists are these days. My worst fear is to make decoration. political artist. ‘I am not political, I cover contemporary If you want that, then go to Ikea, but don’t look to artists to events. I am not an activist. I cannot be shuffled to different make your house look pretty,’ she declares. ‘My professor sides. I am not creating advertisements for one political said, “Use your head and make me think.” That is what I party or another. But I am not anti-anything. I am only always want to do.’ pro. I am pro-human rights and pro-women’s rights. I often get asked whether I am creating work that is anti-Iran or ne element that Rahbar wants viewers to anti-American, but I am not. All I am saying is that all this think critically about is the overt political is not working. And I am not contributing to it.’ message in much of her art. Rahbar’s conIn an interview with Neda Sarmast for Iranian.com, frontation of the war in Iraq at the Queens Rahbar elaborated on this point with the statement: ‘You Museum of Art Biennial was positively recan’t compare America with Africa or with Iran or any othviewed, and after her participation in the er culture. In the end we are all made up of the same fibre, high-profile group show she was selected from a pool of in the end we are all human; we lose sight of that so easily. highly qualified artists to become a ‘teaching artist’ and creI want to remind people of that, through my work.’ ate a solo show for the Museum. There she developed a room-sized installation addressYet despite rejecting chauvinistic notions, Rahbar is adaing the subject of war in the Middle East and also screened mantly attached to her native culture and yearns to connect ‘Nobody‘s Enemy’, a documentary she produced with with Iran. ‘My dream is to show in Tehran,’ she says. ‘It Neda Sarmast on the youth culture of Iran. The striking would mean closure for me. Whatever I do, I want to comphysical impact of the installation was described by critic plete it by showing it at the Museum of Modern Art in Martha Schwendener in the New York Times thus: ‘Just inTehran. But I am aware that you cannot show there unless side the entrance, a collaborative installation, “Nobody‘s your work is obviously apolitical. Friends keep reminding Enemy”, recreates the look of a living room in a Middle me that my interpretation of the work is irrelevant.’ And East war zone, with walls pockmarked by shrapnel, and furshe concludes with a wisdom that every artist understands: niture and carpets covered with dusty grime.’ ‘What matters is how my work is seen.’ __ END Combining her expertise with textiles and her intel-
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