Study of Bad Hands, 2023
Hands are a repeating subject in the history of arts: from early handprints in cave painting, to christian iconography with the hand as form and carrier of meaning with prominent examples in occidental visual memory such as Michelangelo’s fresco painting „The Creation of Adam“ in the Sistine Chapel or Albrecht Dürer´s drawing „Praying Hands“ and Rodin´s sculpture „The Cathedral“ – or in the profane art with depiction of people in painting and sculptor, where hands characterize the portrayed person almost as much as the face. The spectrum of motif variants in political iconography then ranges from the fist as a symbol of violence, threat, but also one’s own power, to the handcuffed hand as a sign of the opponent’s use of violence, to a handshake as a sign of peaceful understanding. Different political groups use the hand motif to convey appropriate messages as needed.
Shahrzad Changalvaee´s installation „Study of Bad hands“ stages, accuses the hands of the supreme political leader of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, transforms photographies of a variety of hand gestures taken from official websites into an accumulation of deranged and devastated objects – beaten, scratched, hammered and folded as a critical description and psychogram of the current society, and remembrance of the situation of the people in Iran.
Found photos printed on aluminum sheets on wooden platform, installation view at NADA Foreland, 2023
