the face of autonomy.
art as a form of protest
The Face of Autonomy highlights and recognises the ongoing plight of political prisoners in Iran who have been taken by the Islamic Regime without legitimate crimes, held for long periods of time, tortured and kept without trial. This performance piece aims to raise awareness of this situation to a global audience, exposing the ongoing crimes occurring in present-day Iran. My current practice provokes various conversations around the regime in Iran by presenting the information through various artworks, mediums and performance installations using different material processes and time.
The Face of Autonomy uses the names of current political prisoners in Iran chosen randomly through a list provided by Amnesty International Iran. The selection of names at random aims to not highlight any prisoner as more important than another through the selection process. However an Australian prisoner Kylie Moor Gilbert has been chosen intentionally as she has gained recent media coverage and attention in Australia, bringing an interest and recognition to the victims currently being held in Iran. Her name has been written in English to provoke the curiosity of the viewer to question why amongst many unknown Iranian names there is one English name written. This performance is a piece within a larger body of work within a political spectrum and conversation about Iranian identity, history and culture.
Firstly a mirror is placed on the ground within a large empty space. In three movements a rock shatters the mirror, the act of breaking the mirror is symbolic of the plight of the prisoners and the fragility of their present condition. The broken mirror also represents the dismantling of the Islamic Regime happening in the present, by acts of protest and awareness through social media. The names chosen at random with the exception of Kylie Moor Gilbert are written on the shattered pieces. Once written the pieces are moved and re-assembled within the space. The act of re-assembling represents hope with notions of rebuilding and remaking embedded within the act itself. The performance is captured on film and features a soundscape of a pendulum clock indicating the passing of time.
A mirror was selected as the base medium within the work as a symbol of identity and reflection. The base material of a mirror is sand, which is the process of erosion of rock. The use of volcanic rock to shatter the mirror was selected as it is representative of a global element, stateless. The soundscape within The Face of Autonomy indicates time, duality and polarity. The sound of a pendulum clock is used by the state media during Ramadan, indicating the approaching moment to break the fast. The continuous sound of the pendulum clock announces the space between fasting and feasting, indicating a suspended interval between these dualities. This sound of the pendulum is the aural cue to the viewer of the prisoners’ state of suspension, voiceless, unseen and unrecognised.
