The Unbreakable Rope

Soody Sharifii
b. 1955, Iran
Soody Sharifi is an American/Iranian
artist working in photography, painting
and collage to untangle the paradoxes
of the two cultures under which she has
grown up. She challenges notions of
Eastern and Western through her multi-disciplinary
oeuvre exploring concepts of
identity. Soody approaches her subjects
from the view of both an outsider and an
insider, investigating ideas of alienation
and integration. Much of her work examines
what it means to be a young Muslim
in both Iran and the United States in the
21st century, and how modernity can be
embraced and interwoven into a traditional
society with strong religious ideals.
Since the age of 17, Soody has lived
and worked in Houston, Texas, where
she studied for a Bachelor of Science
in Industrial Engineering at the University
of Houston in 1982. In 2004 she re-enrolled
to complete a Master of Fine Arts
in Studio Photography. Her carefully
staged works show an influence of meticulous
planning and physical context.
They feel engineered and practical in
their structure and execution. In 2010
Soody completed a residency at Stiftung
Kunstledorf Schoppingen, Germany, and
she has been the subject of several solo
exhibitions throughout the USA, Finland
and Slovakia. Her works are in the
collections of the Museum of Fine Arts
in Portland, the Museum of Fine Arts in
Houston and the Farjam Collection in the
United Arab Emirates.
As part of The unbreakable rope, Soody
is presenting work from her Maxiature
series. The works appear as large-scale
Islamic illuminated manuscript illustrations,
yet collaged with contemporary
figures in the scenes. They are finely
detailed and saturated with colour, referencing
the exquisite craft of the Islamic
manuscript illuminators who were true
masters of their art – an art that took
many years to master both because of
its painstaking technique and rich heritage.
The contemporary figures address
the ways in which young people interact
with a society strongly underpinned by
traditional values, at the same time situated
in an age of unparalleled social
and technological change. The works
are highly alluring in their colour and
labyrinthine compositional schemes,
alluding to convoluted imaginings of history.
Soody Sharifi uses the tradition of
Persian miniature painting and photo-collage
to present a dialogical critique of
the entrenched positions separating the
Western and Muslim worlds.
The Maxiature series intervenes in the
tradition of Persian miniature painting,
incorporating contemporary issues and
art practices into the centuries-old form.
The series ruptures the miniature tradition
on two levels: the medium (the works use
photography) and the kinds of narratives
depicted, which lead to incongruous
and at times humorous results. As highly
sophisticated pieces of visual language,
Persian miniatures often explore the tension
between public and private spaces.
In particular, they offer the viewer idealized
vignettes of daily court life behind
the palace walls.
The Maxiature works open up the private
spaces of domestic settings to provide
the audience with a privileged insight in
to Islamic culture behind closed doors.
Whilst Islamic miniatures traditionally
show courtly spectacles such as elegant
receptions, sporting hunts and romantic
encounters (by characters who are
depicted as generic types rather than
specific individuals), the protagonists of
Soody’s works are sourced from staged
and documented photographs. By blurring
the line between fiction and reality,
they suggest a tension between Islamic
culture and Western influences. Religious
and secular attitudes collide in Soody’s
works, revealing a miscegenation of
visual narratives before rendered in black
and white.
A Courtly Love
Archival inkjet print
89 x 114.3 cm
Edition of 6
2007
Love is in the Air
Archival inkjet print
94 x 114.3 cm
Edition of 3
2007