Blood-Soaked Butterflies: Parastoo Farahvar's Works in London

Two years ago, Parastoo Farahvar held an exhibition in London titled "Kiss Me," which had a very strong political and social theme. In my notes, I mentioned that perhaps this suffering artist (who experienced a very bitter and unbelievable tragedy in her life: the brutal murder of her parents during the chain murders) needs to keep the door open for abstraction and explore her social and political themes through artistic abstraction in other layers as well. Her new exhibition in London titled "Revisiting Imagination" at the "P Art Works" gallery includes several new works from this year, which fortunately leave the door open for abstraction and, I believe, opens a new chapter for Farahvar's works. This abstraction peaks in a large piece called "The Time of Butterflies"; a digital design in which we see butterflies that are tumultuous inside, each depicting a part of today's political-social situation in Iran: from butterflies with bloody interiors (a clear reference to the chain murders; the main theme of her works over the years that has found various dimensions and forms in her different works) and blindfolds and prison bars (political prisoners) to the captivity of women (the status of women in today's society). The latter theme is also reflected in other works and essentially depicts the status of women in today's Iranian society, which is another main concern of her works. In designs in very small booklets that take on an animated form when flipped quickly, themes such as the bondage of women and their stoning are highlighted, presenting a fragile and sometimes playful world of the artist, narrating a bitter and dark world that can bind or even stone a lover. Over the years, Farahvar's dreamy approach to the realities around her took the form of "documenting"; standing in a corner and narrating what she sees. She even chose this title for one of her works: a place where she shared all the documents related to the chain murders with the audience. However, in her new butterflies, we see a different approach that shares the artist's narrative of her surroundings with us. She is no longer just a witness; she shares her inner world with us. In these abstract butterflies, we see the same previous themes of the artist with the same symbols—blood, death, chador, bondage, blindfolds—but this time we have distanced ourselves from "documenting": Farahvar allows her unconscious to become apparent. This unconscious also turns bitter, but Farahvar—both consciously and unconsciously—has sometimes reached life and a celebration of it from within the bitterness and darkness over the years; including in one of her most famous works called "Friday"—which may be her best work and is presented in large dimensions in this exhibition—we see black chadors that surround everything, and amidst this darkness, there is only a small white part: a hand holding this chador that clearly resembles a woman's genitalia. Finding contradictions like this shapes Farahvar's main concern, which has clear reflections in her various works; including in "Kiss Me" where mourning finds an unbreakable bond with love and kissing. Here too, a clear symbol of religion (the chador) is placed in contradiction with a body that everyone wants to hide women. From the coercion that the black chador evokes, a symbol of intimacy and fertility—and birth—emerges and promises life; just like the astonishing contradiction that exists in Iranian society where, despite all the limitations and prevailing darkness, the light of life and hope (and its reflections in love, intimacy, birth, and continuation of life) exists and strangely emerges from within the same limitations and shows itself.