Viewing Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel

Get ready to become a rebel with The Barbican’s newest exhibition of works by Iranian artist Soheila Sokhanvari. Taking its title from David Bowie’s infamous 1974 pop anthem, Rebel Rebel is a site-specific installation comprised of 27 eye-catching portraits of feminist icons from pre-revolutionary Iran.

Painted and hung using traditional materials – egg tempera paint applied with a squirrel-hair brush on calf vellum and set against hand-painted murals based on Islamic geometric patterns – these portraits pay tribute to the courage displayed by each subject. Important icons include Simin Dāneshvar, the first major Iranian academic and writer; the film star Roohangiz Saminejad who rose to prominence as the first unveiled actress playing heroine Golnar in the Persian film Lor Girl (1934); and notable 50’s Iranian pop and classical singer Farahdokht Abbas Taleghani who went by the stage name Pouran.

In the background to this charged visual experience are songs from a new soundtrack composed by Marios Aristopoulos. In this commission he has carefully weaved together songs by popular female Iranian singers from the mid-20th century that not only nods to several icons depicted in Sokhanvari’s portraits such as Googoosh and Ramesh, but also provides a poignant reminder of the many women that are still being silenced in Iran.