Farhad Ahrarnia
Farhad Ahrarnia's collection Beautiful is the Silence of Ruins is made up of digitally manipulated photographs of famous Hollywood stars of the 30s - 60s, such as James Dean, Carole Lombard and Montgomery Clift, combined with archive images of Iranian ruins. These are then printed on to canvas and then partly embroidered. Ahrarnia raises the issue of how war is glamourised by todays media by using images of glamourous stars (some holding guns) beside images of war ruins. The embroidery links the two photographs together with the use of the darting lines across the two. Ahrarnia links the ancient monuments of Iran with the modernity represented by Hollywood, while the tight threads hint at the tension between the two countries. At first glance the shapes and lines are very colourful against the black and white images but then we notice how angular and harsh they are, which creates a sense of anger and stress.
This could relate to my own idea of Hulme and the flower quite nicely. I could get a photograph of Hulme and a photograph of a flower and put them side by side to create the link. Or alternatively I could have a black and white image of Hulme and embroider colourful flowers on top of the image. Although I think this would make a very interesting piece of work, my lack of embroidery skills may be a hindrance!
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