Unveiled on 28 November 2022, Eyes on Iran is a multifaceted public art installation, punctuating the spaces of New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State Park. Eye motifs have been staged in different scales throughout the park to examine the power of collective sight, with eyes facing the UN, signifying the world’s eyes on Iran.
In attendance at the opening ceremony for the exhibition, which took place yesterday, were former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, human rights lawyer and project director at the Atlantic Council Gissou Nia, as well as artists and singers supporting the liberation of women in Iran. The installation runs in line with both the UN initiative, ‘16 days of activism against Gender-Based Violence’ (25 November until Human Rights Day on 10 December 2022). And with the goal to amplify the mission of ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ – a global campaign demanding that the Islamic Republic of Iran be removed from the Commission on the Status of Women, the UN's dedicated gender equality branch.
Sheida Soleimani, Mahsa, 2022. On show at New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State Park
Artworks in the park have been created by Iranian artists Sheida Soleimani, Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Z, Icy and Sot, Shirin Neshat, Mahvash Mostala, Sepideh Mehraban, and Shirin Towfiq, conceptual artist and co-founder of For Freedoms Hank Willis Thomas, and French artist JR.
Throughout the installation’s brief lifespan, billboards will be flown over New York on 3 December, and during Miami Art Week 2022 featuring works by Hank Willis Thomas and Mahvash Mostala. Within the park, an interactive installation by artist JR will take place on 4 December.
On the wider role of the show, artist Shirin Neshat remarks ‘many artists throughout the diaspora (...are presenting) our vision to ensure international audiences and institutions remain aware of what is happening in Iran and feel moved to respond.’
'Eyes on Iran' runs until 1 January 2022 at the FDR Four Freedoms State Park, New York. forfreedoms.com
Icy & Sot, Bricks of a revolution, 2022. On show at New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State Park
Z, Baraye, 2022, facing the United Nations building in New York. On show at New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State Park
Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Uproot the Roots, Rise up: Woman/Zan, 2022. On show at New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State Park
-
Titanium watches are strong, light and enduring: here are some of the bestBrands including Bremont, Christopher Ward and Grand Seiko are exploring the possibilities of titanium watches
-
Warp Records announces its first event in over a decade at the Barbican‘A Warp Happening,' landing 14 June, is guaranteed to be an epic day out
-
Cure your ‘beauty burnout’ with Kindred Black’s artisanal glasswareDoes a cure for ‘beauty burnout’ lie in bespoke design? The founders of Kindred Black think so. Here, they talk Wallpaper* through the brand’s latest made-to-order venture
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
This rainbow-coloured flower show was inspired by Luis Barragán's architectureModernism shows off its flowery side at the New York Botanical Garden's annual orchid show.
-
‘Psychedelic art palace’ Meow Wolf is coming to New YorkThe ultimate immersive exhibition, which combines art and theatre in its surreal shows, is opening a seventh outpost in The Seaport neighbourhood
-
Wim Wenders’ photographs of moody Americana capture the themes in the director’s iconic films'Driving without a destination is my greatest passion,' says Wenders. whose new exhibition has opened in New York’s Howard Greenberg Gallery
-
20 years on, ‘The Gates’ makes a digital return to Central ParkThe 2005 installation ‘The Gates’ by Christo and Jeanne-Claude marks its 20th anniversary with a digital comeback, relived through the lens of your phone
-
Miami’s new Museum of Sex is a beacon of open discourseThe Miami outpost of the cult New York destination opened last year, and continues its legacy of presenting and celebrating human sexuality
-
Inside Luna Luna in New York, the amusement park designed by artists‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ – featuring rides by Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Haring, and Dalí – that were kept in storage for more than thirty years
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
