Painting series · 2010–2012
Take photos without coordination
In this series, I imagined a different outcome to the events of 2009 in Iran: the people have prevailed, and women in military uniform are dancing. Yet the people in the paintings pay little attention to them, as though even this impossible scene has changed nothing in their lives. These scenes became a way for me to ask how victory enters people’s everyday experience, and what might remain untouched in its aftermath.
The title comes from altering a familiar instruction displayed in military areas: “Do not take photos without coordination.” In Persian, removing a single letter turns a prohibition into an invitation: “Take photos without coordination.” Within the world of these paintings, people are free to look at and photograph something that could not have been openly visible in the reality of that time—even a woman dancing in military uniform. The freedom to look and to record is part of this imagined freedom.
Military uniform, dance, and the presence of women come together, each altering the usual meaning of the others. To convey joy, I used the colourful flags commonly seen at state celebrations. A symbol of official celebration thus enters an imagined scene in which a woman’s body, clothed in the uniform of order and authority, moves in a different way.
Yet joy offers no definitive answer in these images. A distance remains between the dancing soldiers and the indifference of the people—a distance between victory taking place and change being felt. In this imagined narrative, freedom has become possible, but the question remains: to what extent does a transformation of the scene become a transformation of life?
Four Women in Military Uniform Dancing, 2010
