Upon closer inspection, the seemingly decorative effect of
Forouhar’s Thousand and one day quickly
transforms into a brutal nightmarish scene. Based on the artist’s imagination,
readings, and authentic victim’s accounts, the site-specific work displays a wide
range of torture scenes played out by tiny, faceless individuals. Many details
have been left out with the exception of the perpetrator’s weapons and method
of killing. Thousand and one day
was designed by the artist using digital pictograms in the style of traditional
Persian miniature painting. Her
work is particularly relevant in today’s mediated society, especially in the
face of the Iraq War and the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.
Maura Raily Global Feminisems, catalogue of the same named exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, 2007
