Backsplash
Artist
Negar Ahkami
(American, b. 1971)
Date2010
MediumAcrylic, gesso, and glitter on wood panel
Dimensions48 x 60 in.
ClassificationsMixed Media
Credit LineGeneral Purchase Fund
Object number2010.84
Description“Backsplash” shows a melting New York cityscape in the shape of a mosque. The geometric, calligraphic, and floral patterning, as well as the many shades of blue, brings to mind beautifully decorated Iranian mosques. Ahkami, an Iranian-American, took inspiration from traditional Iranian ceramics when she chose to create textures by layering hardened gesso and acrylic onto a wood panel. She wanted to pay tribute to the celebratory and flamboyant nature of Iranians and, as a result, decided to include glitter in this painting.Ahkami says of her work:
“While formally paying tribute to Iranian culture, “Backsplash” satirizes Iran’s menacing image in the United States and the cartoonish brutality of Iran’s theocratic regime. The melting mosque resembles a factory or power plant, with polluting smokestacks for minarets. It also evokes the 1960’s horror film “The Blob”. The force of the meltdown produces a green counter-wave in which miniature faces and hands of imperiled Iranian protestors are submerged.
In this work, I deliberately combine a flamboyant exquisiteness with a cartoonish brutality to mirror the absurdly conflicting perceptions of Iran to which I have been exposed as an Iranian-American. Among Iranians, Iran is regarded as a source of immense pride and influence on world culture; within American contemporary culture, Iran is understood as a backward source of terror. I use the cacophonic, swirling patterning in Persian art as an expressive tool to convey the dizzying confusion I have experienced from being exposed to such opposite versions of Iran.”
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