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Restaging Time: Photography, Performance and Anachronism in Shadi Ghadirian's Qajar Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Melissa Heer*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Abstract

This paper looks at a group of photographs entitled Qajar Series (1998) by artist Shadi Ghadirian. Ghadirian recreates sets to look like those used in photographic portraits taken during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century of the Qajar dynasty period and dresses her female sitters in costumes reminiscent of clothes from the era. The artist also integrates contemporary objects that do not fit within the historical setting created for the camera. This essay examines how the artist uses performance to stage this anachronism and think critically about temporal discourses and their links to the categories of modernity and tradition.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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References

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