Mutations of U, او, Niloofar Taatizadeh,
FILET, London, 2023
Mutations of U, او, uses the error - a glitch in the gendered nightmare and makes it into a dream, weaving together post-colonial gender theories with 19th-century Persian non-binary representations through large scale textile and metal installations.
Beginning from a painting of a couple embracing, dated AH 1252/1836-7 AD, we see a glimpse in time where the binary of gender is not distinguishable - femininity and masculinity are tied together. Both people have long hair, full garments and sit poised, turning toward each other, intertwined. Niloofar Taatizadeh zooms in on these two faces and joins them in an act of re-queering what was already queer but through history has been seen as an error in heteronormativity. In capturing this moment and performing it through staged self-portraits and reproducing these images in new media techniques with ancestral crafts and materials, Niloofar agitates the years of cultural shaming and heterosexualisation from the West on Iranian bodies. The use of textiles in forms of embroidery and weaving is in appreciation of the skill in Persian art forms and the aesthetic of Eastern materiality. The fabrics interact with hand-made metal structures that tilt and bend. The materials lose their associated characteristics and what we find instead is a series of mutations; mutations of U, 1او, mutations of imagery, mutations of gender-sex.
Instal photography by Abd Doumany