Sahar Abolghasemi thesis exhibition: 'The Bruised Sun'

Sahar Abolghasemi’s thesis exhibition The Bruised Sun presents a series of iconoclastic mixed-media artworks that respond to the pressures and challenges endured by women in Middle Eastern countries. Inspired by Persian feminist poets, Abolghasemi (M.F.A. photography) offers “the bruised sun” as a metaphor for the women whose lives have been controlled by the oppressive patriarchal system of post-Islamic Revolution Iran, which has dimmed and obscured their inner light.

In her black-and-white self-portraits, Abolghasemi looks directly into the camera, confronting these issues head on and testifying her own lived experience while also expressing sympathy and humanizing the rage — and hope — felt by kindred women. Created using a variety of printing methods including photogravure, the images are encased in frames ornamented with newspaper clippings and Persian calligraphies of revolutionary mottos that protest restrictions and harassment. Abolghasemi also collages personal belongings and traditional Iranian symbolic objects, such as the Keffiyeh scarf, onto her printed images — a process through which the objects lose their everyday functionality to assume a new role as witness of the vicissitudes of her life.

Reception: Monday, March 7, 5–7 p.m.

Gallery hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.