2022
TEKRAR collection

TEKRAR, the title of the exhibition comes from a Farsi word meaning repetition as in weaving or knitting; in her work, generations of women are entwined within a woven cultural fabric. The artist identifies with all Iranian women, past present and future. In two works on paper, there are wedding portraits of the Shah’s Queens in their customized Christian Dior gowns; both seen as role models of strength, beauty and class whom many Iranian women admired and aspired to emulate. In particular, the Empress Farah née Diba (third wife and widow), is a role model with her charitable and philanthropic work, that along with her embrace of modern culture, helped shaped the identity of Iranian women of Davoud’s generation The pre-revolution generation of women during the Shah’s pro-Western-modernization of the 60s/70s were encouraged to wear European design couture, giving the impression that they were modern and liberated. She sees a parallel with the forced hijab clad women of the current regime as both generations of women have little or no choice in their representation. At the bottom of one of the drawings is a brightly colored trompe l’œil threaded braid; an imagining that if pulled all may come together or cause an unraveling. Davoud’s metaphoric work celebrates the commonality these women share that goes beyond the cultural fabric that holds them together.