Silence Unseen

Bahrami’s worlds are contemporaneous but geographically and culturally disparate. In her work, she explores the challenges women face in her home country of Iran. Women do not enjoy the same freedoms in Iran as they do in the United States, and Bahrami’s work sheds light on this painful truth from her vantage point living and studying in the US.

Often incorporating Persian script, Bahrami’s works metaphorically speak on behalf of women who are effectively silenced by the pervasive culture of misogyny under which they live. Regardless of whether you can read the language, the sitter is empowered by her ability to control her narrative and share her voice.

This triptych, Hushed, features increasingly legible text, like a whisper growing louder or echoing around you. Although the seated woman's position does not change, the power of the words—which we presume to be hers or about her—grows progressively.

Robinson navigates worlds separated by time: the one she occupies today, and those previously occupied by her family. The result of research conducted via archives, site visits, and oral histories, Robinson’s videos unearth the history of her ancestors, the French family, memorializing their experiences as enslaved people in the American South. The Call features images of the Kentucky homestead on which the Frenches were enslaved, accompanied by narration that tells the story of Anna French's migration from Kentucky to Chicago, a fictionalized retelling of real experiences culled from letters written to northern newspapers by hopeful migrants throughout the South.

This still from The Call shows a tax record from 1835 that listed the possessions of James French upon his death, including thirteen people he had enslaved, who are most likely Robinson's own ancestors. Through this video and others, Robinson frames her family’s experience as enslaved people with later triumphs as free Americans in Chicago—of which there is extensive archival proof—and their earlier lives on the African continent—of which there is no comparable documentation. In uncovering previously unknown information about her own ancestors, Robinson positions herself as both the archivist and the archived.

Without context, images of the Kentucky homestead on which Robinson's ancestors were enslaved show a beautiful, somewhat wild land. The Call features shots such as this one, meditating on the ways in which horror and ugliness intermingle with beauty at this site.

"I wish...

I wish a man could carry his

country like violets

(in dirt boxes)

with himself wherever he wishes

in the rain, in the clear sun!”

—Mohammad-Reza Shafiei-Kadkani

Bahrami frequently utilizes craft materials and processes frequently coded as feminine in order to she imagine a safe space in which the empowered Iranian woman can speak her mind. This sculptural piece includes woven cotton thread and wire, seen clearly in this detail photo.

"In a years-long effort to connect to my ancestors after discovering my maternal family, roots in Kentucky, Berea is a meditation on mining the past. The video essay highlights a desperation to excavate the lost memories of in my family’s history, including my great-great grandfather's years studying at Berea College shortly after the Civil War. The also piece contains archival audio and film footage that are used as an entry point into exploring and unearthing fractured memories. The archival content includes Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 silent film Within Our Gates, Learning to Live, a promotional film from Berea in 1937, at a time when the school was segregated due to a 1904 law in Kentucky that forced the segregation of schools, and the audio of an interview with anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston."

In these works, Bahrami photographed herself wearing a chador, a garment traditionally worn by Muslim women that covers every part of the body except the face, as well as a veil the artist made from hemp yarn. The veil features willow tree spikes crocheted directly into the fabric. Both materials cause the veil to be uncomfortable to wear while also threatening to an onlooker, complicating the notions of power and freedom a veil or hijab is often seen to represent.

Both Bahrami and Robinson's work prominently feature nature motifs, particularly vast forests, and the artists often show themselves within these spaces. In this still, Robinson fills a small jar with dirt from Berea as a token of her family history. She has similar jars containing dirt from other locations linked to her ancestry, including Senegal.

The artists' use of imagery of the natural world highlights how cultural traditions and history are the product of man-made systems. Their works suggest that these systems are thus malleable, cautiously but optimistically suggesting that knowledge of one's culture or ancestry allows one to envision a better future.