Portrait of Somayyeh.
I Know Why The Rebel Sings strikingly highlights the impressive range of Iranian photojournalist Newsha Tavakolian. Comprising photographs from her previous series, “Look”, “Listen” and “The Blank Pages Of An Iranian Photo Album”, this comprehensive showcase includes previously unexhibited images of humanitarian tragedies around the
world. It highlights the continuum in Tavakolian’s oeuvre, from art to photojournalism. With a focus on the portrait, these two genres are scintillatingly in conversation in her work.
Tavakolian’s talent for making the inner worlds of her subjects come alive is seen in her “Look” series. It captures the people in her building, each individual framed by a window and the detritus of everyday living. Her work refuses to fall into the clichés of expressing Iran today. Instead she gives complexity to these ordinary lives without resorting to narratives of oppression and freedom. This theme is continued in “The Blank Pages Of An Iranian Photo Album”, in which she follows her peers through video portraits and photo albums from their daily lives.
“Listen” highlights the plight of female singers in her home country in a candid statement about a society in which women cannot perform solo or produce their own albums. “The project ‘Listen’ echoes the voices of these silenced women,” she states. “I let Iranian women singers perform through my camera while the world has never heard of them.” Enlightening and heartbreaking at the same time, I Know Why The Rebel Sings offers a rare glimpse of life, unfiltered.
FREE ADMISSION with O.P.E.N. Pass. Limited single entry tickets available at the door.
When: 22 Jun - 9 Jul 2016,
By: Singapore International Festival of Arts
