Multitude 10

Sadegh Tirafkan

2008 · Digital photo collage, lambda print · Islamic Art

Sadegh Tirafkan explores Iranian identity through photographs he has staged, shot, or found. In "Multitude 10," he splices together dozens of photographs showing Iranian schoolgirls in the traditional rupush, or Islamic uniform. Over this, he prints a battle scene from the Shahnama of Firdausi. This pairing of the contemporary with the historical presents Iranian identity as a complex and contradictory one: on the one hand, independent and forward-looking, on the other, stubbornly traditional. Here the past is juxtaposed with the present in such a way that the warriors of the Shahnama are looking down upon the young schoolgirls exercising in a school yard.

Artist

Sadegh Tirafkan

Date

2008

Medium

Digital photo collage, lambda print

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Purchase, 2011 NoRuz at The Met Benefit, 2013