Lot 160: Amirali Ghasemi , Iranian B. 1980 Untitled (From the Party Scenes Series) cibachrome print mounted on aluminium

signed, dated 2006 and numbered 1/5 on the reverse cibachrome print mounted on aluminium

measurements note 99.7 by 75cm.; 39 1/4 by 29 1/2 in.

Rose Issa, Ed., Iranian Photography Now, London 2008, p. 61, illustrated in colour (illustrated on the front cover)

Private Collection, London

Amirali Ghasemi's artworks present images of the other side of Iran - the Iran that lies beneath the veil, behind closed doors, and at odds with the pictures provided by national and international mass media. As an artist and a curator, Ghasemi's creative endeavours engage with Iranian youth culture and its rebellion against the established, handed-down social order. A member of this culture himself, Ghasemi's productions offer a privileged, insider view of Iran's evolving cultural terrain with its topography of greater socio-cultural openness and political liberalization. Ghasemi's oeuvre sheds light on the presence of transculturalism in the Islamic Republic and the signs of international influence on its people; it locates and traces the site of contact and process of negotiation between the traditions of the old Iran and modernity, technology, and globalization. Ghasemi's work acknowledges the contradictions and complexities that have resulted from the nonetheless ever-thawing conflict between the two by attempting to come to terms with the mysteriously knotty nature of Iran's contemporary social conditions. Amirali Ghasemi's solution to this riddle is often to simultaneously expose and conceal, an act that reflects the inconsistencies that exist between crust and core or appearance and reality in Iran, and that partially surfaces underground life. With a foundation in graphic design, Amirali Ghasemi investigates these ideas in new media; his productions range from posters, websites, and blogs to photographs, installations, performances, videos, and public and interactive projects. Ghasemi's integration of technology and art pushes the boundaries of the expressive potential of the digital age. His oeuvre is dominated by computer modified or generated images, especially photographs, that have a cut and paste look to them. Ghasemi's Party Scenes Series is collection of digital photographs shot in a house party setting in Iran. They are informal images that have a spontaneous appearance, close-up shots of friends wearing revealing clothes, caught in mid-conversation, dance, or meal. The photographer is clearly a participant in the scene as can be established from the immediate accessibility of the photographs to us as viewers. Party Scenes Series is thus a group of intimate, real-life snapshots of youth in Iran. Ghasemi's figures could be confused with youths from anywhere else in the world, were it not for the blotting out of their faces and unclothed body parts. Amirali Ghasemi's cover up of his character's identities may be partly to insure their safety but it also highlights the clandestine nature of this westernized lifestyle, a lifestyle vehemently opposed by the conservatives in Iran. Ironically, the manner in which Ghasemi disguises his figures is similar to the way in which the bodies of women are censored in images in the Islamic Republic. Rather than coating his characters with an oppressive layer of black however, Ghasemi opts for a radiant white, a manifestation of the vivacity that shines from within them. Ghasemi's party-goers are, in this way, very much beacons of light in the gradual development of social freedoms in Iran.