War under spotlight in mix media collage

A group of Iranian artists have collaborated on a mixed media presentation to express the pain and suffering caused by war.

A collection of photographs titled ‘Smile Iraq!’ was put on display in an exhibition at a gallery in the Iranian capital city of Tehran on Friday.

The photographs feature portraits of a number of Iraqi people in warzones mixed with other media.

The portraits were taken by photographer Farshid Zolfagharifard nine months ago.

“Pairs of sad eyes were common to all the portraits when I looked at the collection,” Zolfagharifard said.

However, what is noticeable about the portraits are the missing mouths, which Zolfagharifard decided to remove in order to make visitors turn their attention to the eyes.

He selected 28 photos and requested that 28 artists create replacements for the mouths in the photos.

“Each pair of eyes have stories as long as a 20-volume collection; the true stories that all are about war, death, and misery,” Zolfagharifard noted.

The ‘Smile Iraq!’ exhibition will run at the Barsam Gallery in Tehran until August 17.

AI/AI