Hoda Afshar
In Turn, 2023
This body of work was made in response to the feminist uprising that began in Iran in September 2022, following the death of 22-year-old Jina Amini who had been arrested by Iran's morality police for not wearing the hijab properly. Afshar's monumental photographs are a tribute and a testament to collective action and collective grief.
The women in the photographs are, like Afshar, Iranian Australians who have watched the protests unfold from afar. Dressed in black, they cluster together and braid each other's hair. This is a direct
allusion to the images on social media of women in Iran defiantly discarding the veil, and to a practice common among Kurdish female fighters who plait each other's hair before heading into battle against the Islamic State. With their faces mostly hidden from view and their backs turned, Afshar's subjects are surrogates for their brave sisters in Iran. The doves anchor the analogy; when protesters are killed in
Iran, family and friends release birds into the sky. The twines of a plait are referred to as pichesh-e-moo in Farsi, meaning the turn or fold of the hair. A revolution is a turning point, but it is never without loss.
Hoda Afshar (b. Iran 1983) is a visual artist whose practice focuses on the intricate relationships between politics and aesthetics, She is interested in the ways that image-making can either reinforce or challenge our common sense, and the forces that shape perception. Her works invite audiences to reflect on and to rethink how and what we see, often by drawing attention to parts of the political and visible order that have previously been excluded.
Hoda’s artistic practice embraces a variety of media and approaches – primarily using photography and video, though her recent projects have involved working with archival images and other materials including text and sound elements. She has employed diverse techniques ranging from 3D photography and printing to mirror-making, and her documentary projects often involve collaborating with participants, and other forms of intervention that disrupt traditional approaches.
Hoda’s work has been widely exhibited and published online and in print, and is part of numerous private and public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, MoMA in New York, Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac in Paris, National Gallery of Victoria in Australia, Getty Museum Collection in Los Angeles, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Germany, KADIST in Paris,
National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Art Gallery of NSW and more.