Parisa Ghaderi (born 1983, Tehran, Iran). Installation view of For Dancing in the Streets, 2023. Multi-channel video. Courtesy of the Artist. Photography by Rebecca Cook and Michigan Photography.
Parisa Ghaderi: For Dancing in the Streets
“For me, art is a potent vessel for not only sharing my own narrative but also amplifying the voices of those whose struggles and triumphs often go unnoticed or unheard. My mission is to lend a voice to the silenced, and inspire others through stories of resilience, and perseverance.” –Parisa Ghaderi
About the exhibition
For dancing in the streets (2023) is an immersive, multi-channel video work by artist Parisa Ghaderi. For this installation, Ghaderi collaged hundreds of found images and video from the ongoing Woman, Life, Freedom protests that began in Iran in 2022. The work explores the female body and how it has long been a contested site of struggle around the world, specifically among Iranian women.
Dance has been used as a form of protest and resistance in Iran for decades, where modesty laws forbid women from dancing in public. Both men and women have used dancing to protest Iran’s compulsory veiling laws, resulting in their imprisonment and even death because of their peaceful protests. For dancing in the streets is a testament to how shared suffering can foster resistance.
About the artist
Parisa Ghaderi is a visual artist, curator, educator, and filmmaker. She earned her BA in Visual Communications from Art & Architecture University (Tehran, Iran) and her MFA at the University of Michigan Stamps School in 2014. She served as Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Michigan State University and is now Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Technology at Shoreline Community College.
Ghaderi’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally including A.I.R. Gallery, New York; Musée d’Art moderne de Paris, France; The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing; the Red Bull House of Art, Detroit; Stamps Gallery at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
