Photographer: Bo Wong
Voices from Beyond the Mountain developed in response to the death of Mahsa Jina Amini the catalyst that ensued and drove female lead protests in the streets of Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz, Isfahan and around the world. Mahsa was targeted, arrested, beaten and murdered for supposedly not wearing her hijab properly, as an Iranian women living in the west there is an inherent obligation and need to make western audiences aware of the atrocities inflicted upon women and to magnify the human rights violations in Iran. These three works examine the effects of materiality in placing the viewer into a state of confrontation and panic, making them question their position of privilege living in a society that is predominantly safe and free from terrorism, a tyrannical dictatorship and religious extremism.
Photographer: Bo Wong
Photographer: Bo Wong
Photographer: Bo Wong
The use of hair, traditional carpets and weapons was crucial in translating the reasons behind these ongoing protests in Iran, the overt use of military and private guerrilla war gangs in oppressing, silencing and obliterating minorities and people who fight against the regime. Visible hair on women in Iran is seen as immoral, sinful and illegal, therefore by using hair excessively within the two sculptural works magnifies the brave resistance of Iranian women and girls fighting for their basic human rights to be free. An instrumental and powerful movement within the protest were of women and men cutting and shaving off their hair off in retaliation against the violence wielded over women and minorities. This quickly spread around the world with thousands of women, men and non- binary people, Iranian and non- Iranian cutting their hair in solidarity with the women of Iran.
Photographer: Bo Wong
Photographer: Bo Wong
Photographer: Bo Wong
Photographer: Bo Wong
I acknowledge that I am a settler who lives and works on the unceded lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.