MISS BUTTERFLY

Sushma Sabnis

A large needle pierces an imaginary cloth of air with a woollen string, making large spider webs. Patiently, like the arachnid weaver, the string is drawn in and out into knots and tight concentric polygons. The webs block the openings of trapdoors, roof outlets, doorways, windows, even room separators. Light pierces the house, as light cares little for permission to enter, but people would need permissions to come and go as they please. Tehran based artist Shadi hadirian’s photography works speak volumes as she dedicates them to her imprisoned journalist friend Nazanin Khosravani. Inspired by a play ‘Miss Butterfly’ by Bijan Mofid, the artist focuses on the silent struggle for freedom from outdated doctrines and laws which cripple society and its progress. The price of breaking free from a self imposed comfortable cage, would require a determined effort not just by one person but by the entire society. In her works, Shadi positions the protagonist, a young Iranian woman with a holistic identity in a positive light. Shadi subtly implies the political subjugation of this entity, by visually striking a balance between an elegant visible beauty and a silent struggle in closed, ‘protected’ rooms. epresented in stark black and white photography works, the message however, of defeating one’s complacence to get what they rightfully deserve, dissolves any notion of direct victimisation. Each of the photographs show a woman weaving the spider web on portals of entry, like doorways and entrances. The deliberate evasion of the viewer’s gaze by the protagonist is a metaphor for the reluctance of a society or a community to take the first step towards that ephemeral ‘freedom’. Weaving larger polygonal shapes in the web, she seems to convince herself of the supposed ‘protection‘ it can give her from the big bad world outside. A prison is not just about barricades, shackles, chains and high brick walls; there are far more closeted ideological prisons existent in the minds of humankind. The artist refers to those impenetrable confined places where even light does not venture. Through her works, Shadi attempts to urge the viewer to break free of the darkness of unquestioned conditioning and false ritualistic beliefs. A modern woman living within the conservative codes of the Shariah law, Shadi uses threads of her own experiences to incorporate into the works. With a strong spinal support of women before her who have lived and died in conformity, Shadi quietly holds a non-conformist woman’s perspective in a male dominated environment. One could be reminded of the effect of Edvard Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’ on the viewer, but Shadi’s photographs would probably invoke a silent scream; a cry deep within oneself waiting to be freed with illumination. She intends the viewer to seek a true freedom and watch as the world around metamorphoses into an illumined society.