cloak
- Museum number
- 2021,6036.1
- Title
- Object: Felt Memories, VII
- Description
-
Beige camel felt cloak with metal keys, tulips, metal mesh and prints on metal of Hossein Kharazi, 2009.
- Production date
- 2009
- Dimensions
-
Height: 108 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- This mixing of times and stories lies at the heart of Bita Ghezelayagh’s Felt Memories. Architect, film maker and artist born in Florence in 1966 and brought up in Iran, Ghezelayegh began working with felt in 2004. She describes how: ‘Making my first designs, and travelling around Iran searching for the best techniques, I came across a display of felt shepherds’ capes in a provincial bazaar. They hung inertly, heavily, a reminder of earthy tradition amid the gaudy consumer goods, and were a poignant validation of Joseph Beuys’ elevation of felt into art.’ Bita Ghezelayagh’s capes, however are not to be worn and highlight a completely different narrative - that of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88); a period she lived through. Surrounded at the time by the visual culture of post revolutionary Iran which included symbols of resistance, martyrdom and protection, she introduced these ephemeral objects into her work. Sewn across the textile – 1001 altogether, are keys to paradise, taken by the young fighters into war, tulips, a potent symbol of martyrdom, and the face of the renowned war hero Hossein Kharazi killed in 1987 at the siege of Basra, printed onto metal tags, is repeated in rows along the top.
For other examples of Bita Ghezelayagh's cloaks in the collection see 2009,6029.1 and 2011,6018.1.
(Venetia Porter)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2021
- Department
- Middle East
- Registration number
- 2021,6036.1
