By Heidi Noroozy
When I’m
in Tehran, leaving the house without my camera would be as unthinkable as
stepping onto the street without a scarf and manteau, the tunic every woman is
required to wear for proper Islamic modesty. The city is filled with the most
fascinating snippets of life, exotic to me if not to the locals, and I’d hate
to miss an opportunity to capture them.
On my
most recent visit to Iran last spring, I sometimes abandoned my usual dynamic
subjects of daily life in favor of the city’s painted walls. Murals are
everywhere in Tehran, alongside highways, on public buildings, tucked away in
hidden alleys. Some carry political or religious messages while others are
simply pretty works of art. Many are serious, a few whimsical. But all add
color to a city that is often gray and drab.
Let me
take you on a quick tour of my favorites (so far). We’ll begin at the edge of
Sayeh Park, a green space in the heart of Tehran’s Shemiran district, just
blocks away from my in-laws’ home. I love to walk here, and any excursion means
checking out the murals along Vali Asr Avenue. The most delightful work of art
is this house, which is painted to look like…well…a house, complete with
windows, doors, and even flowers in bloom:
Here’s a
detail of a painted-on window box filled with spring flowers.
Whenever
I pass this charming house, I half expect a hobbit to emerge, tip his hat, then
invite me in for tea, quite forgetting I’m in the Islamic Republic and not
Middle Earth.
Farther
down, across the street from Book City, my eye is drawn to a lovely painting
that stretches all the way up a wall.
The first
time I saw it, from a distance, the bright colors and geometric shapes captured
my attention, and it took me a moment to realize the people were moving. I’d
thought they were part of the two-dimensional scene. In fact, the artwork
decorates the side of a staircase that leads from Vali Asr Avenue to a street
higher up on the hill.
Nearby,
on the same side of the road, this piece of modern art stretches nearly an
entire block. It’s not actually a mural but a mosaic, the motif created from
thousands of colored tiles.
In
Tehran, I always spent a great deal of time sitting in traffic on clogged roads
and highways, an inevitable aspect of any trip to this sprawling city. On my
recent visit, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before: a lovely mural along
the southbound lane of the Modares Highway. Now that a long stretch of Vali Asr
Avenue is one-way northbound, this highway is the most direct way to reach my
in-laws’ house from my favorite bazaar in Tajrish.
I like to
think this mural was set in place to give people something pretty to look at
while sitting impatiently in the inevitable traffic jams.
Another
roadside painting occupies the entire side of a skyscraper:
We passed
this building early one evening as dusk was falling, and the bright red spots
are reflections of taillights traveling along the road. The patterns decorating
the hands caught my attention, and I first thought they looked like the henna
designs that traditionally adorn the hands of Indian women. But on closer
inspection, I realized they are formed by calligraphy, miniature versions of
the larger writing in the image’s center. The messages written here tell the
story of Imam Hossein, the 7th-century Shia leader who was beheaded and
martyred in Karbala (in present-day Iraq) during a battle between Shia and
Sunni Muslim armies.
Occasionally,
I’ve found murals in the most unexpected of places, like this one that
literally adds a ray of (painted) sunshine to its neighborhood.
The
charming scene decorates the side of a school at the end of a narrow alley off
Jomhouri Eslami Street, right across from the red brick complex that houses the
British Embassy (closed since 2011). Birds are a common element in these kinds
of murals, and the two girls are wearing a typical school uniform—a long tunic
worn over pants and a contrasting hood called a magna’eh.
Each time
I return to Tehran, it seems that more of these colorful paintings have sprung
up since my previous trip. So you can be sure that on my next visit—maybe this
year, maybe next—I’ll be wandering about, camera in hand, eyes peeled for more
lovely street art.
very pretty
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteWhat lovely scenery! I could especially hang out at that one by Book City (what a concept!) all day!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Supriya. Or you could sit on the steps and look at Book City across the street. It's a pretty cool bookstore.
DeleteBeautiful! I especially like the "windowbox."
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