“They insist on being believed in, and that doubt is sin. Too well, also, do I know what they themselves most believe in. Verily, not in backworlds and redeeming blood-drops: but in the body do they also believe most; and their own body is for them the thing-in-itself.”
Nietzsche ’s Zarathustra
“In the project I focused on the centrality of body in the cultural struggle, and the articulation of body as mutating systems functioning within a set of larger cultural and biological systems. Most of chapters of “The Book of Arda Viraf “* are about punishments men and specially women bodies suffer in the nether world, because of their bodily sins. Pahlavi texts is unreadable for lots of contemporary Iranians and it is an ancient book but I can find many similar thoughts like chapters of that in Iranian modern life, as well as resonances of similar thoughts reproduced in other societies everyday life. I used different sections of a person’s head MRI, as part of body that all texts and morals comes up from there, and covered it with Pahlavi texts. MRI is primarily a medical imaging technique most commonly used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structure and limited function of the body. Reproducing these shapes as a layer, I chose silkscreen mesh and print. A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric called mesh stretched over a frame of aluminum or wood. Originally human hair then silk was woven into screen mesh; currently most mesh is made of man-made materials such as steel, nylon, and polyester. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material to form a stencil, which is a negative of the image to be printed; that is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear. Screen printing first appeared in a recognizable form in China , Japan and other Asian and eastern countries adopted this method of printing to reproduce forms and shapes. It is currently popular both in pop art and in commercial printing. I also hung a colored single silkscreen mesh reverse at the end of gallery titled body. it’s a Pahlavi world “Tan” which means body, that’s obsolescent among lots of morals and you can’t find any copy and printing of that.”
Parham Taghioff, 2010
* “The Book of Arda Viraf: Of a few extant but mostly anonymous Pahlavi writings, Book of Arda Viraf, better known as the Iranian Divina Commedia, is the most famous. Its original date of composing is obscure, but inaccurate claims have been made that it was composed in late 2nd century AD. The book describes Viraf’s descent into the netherworld, visiting heaven and hell and the pleasures and tortures awaiting the virtuous and the wicked. In its surviving form it is a prose work, written in simple, direct style; and an introductory chapter indicates a date after the Arab conquest. This late redaction was made in Fars. Here again we are confronted with a series of chaotic claims concerning the originality of the text. Some scholars believe it to be even of Hindu origin, and others given the fact that the whole of the Pahlavi literature was written tardily, roughly speaking after the Muslim conquest, regard it as a significant example of the transmission of a text for the Pahlavi literature. The book underwent many revisions, and in the final drafting, the introduction was written subsequently to the Muslim conquest. According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica the book assumed its definitive form in the 9th-10th centuries AD.”
Alireza Seid Ahmadian, 2010
Title:Chapter 6, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:Speak out to the worlds thus: ‘Let not avarice and vexation prevent you from doing a very easy work, for every one whose good works are three Srosho-charanam more than his sin goes to heaven; they whose sin is more go to hell; they in whom both are equal remain among these Hamistagan till the future body.’ Their punishment is cold, or heat, from the revolution of the atmosphere; and they have no other adversity.’
Title:Chapter 9, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:There is the radiance which they call the highest of the highest; and I saw the pious on thrones and carpets made of gold; and they were the people whose brightness was like unto the brightness of the sun. And I asked Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, thus: ‘Which place is this? and who are those souls?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the sun track; and those are the souls who, in the world, exercised good sovereignty and rulership and chieftainship.’
Title:Chapter 13, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the souls of those women of excellent thoughts, of excellent words, of excellent deeds, and submissive to control, who consider their husbands as lords in clothing embroidered with gold and silver, and set with jewels. And they performed the Yazishn and Dron ceremonies, and the praise and services of God; and they performed the rites and praises of the angels of the heavenly existences, and the angels of the earthly existences; and they practiced acquiescence and conformity, reverence and obedience to their husbands and lords.
Title:Chapter 21, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a man, the skin of whose head they ever widen out, and with a cruel death they ever kill him. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by this body, whose soul suffers such a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is this soul of that wicked man who, in the world, slew a pious man.’
Title:Chapter 23, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a man who, because of hunger and thirst, ever cried thus: ‘I shall die.’ And he ever tore out his hair and beard, and devoured blood, and cast foam about with his mouth. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by this body, whose soul suffers such a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the soul of that wicked man who, in the world, devoured talkatively, and consumed unlawfully, the water and vegetables of Hordad and Amurdad, and muttered no grace; and through sinfulness, he celebrated no Yasht;such was his contempt of the water of Hordad, and the vegetation of Amurdad. Now this soul must suffer so severe a punishment.’
Title:Chapter 25, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the souls of several men, and several women, whose legs and necks and middle parts a noxious creature (khrafstar) ever gnawed , and separated one from the other. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by these bodies, whose souls suffer such a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘These are the souls of those wicked ones who, in the world, walked without shoes, ran about uncovered, made water on foot, and performed other demon-service.’
Title:Chapter 26, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a woman who ever stretched out her tongue on her neck, and she was suspended from the atmosphere. And I asked thus: ‘Whose soul is this?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the soul of that wicked woman who, in the world, scorned her husband and master, and cursed, abused and defied him.’
Title:Chapter 34, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a woman whose whole body the noxious creatures (khrafstars) ever gnawed. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by this body?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the soul of that wicked woman who, in the world, dressed her hair-curls and hair over the fire; and threw hairs from, the head and scurf and hair of the body upon the fire; and introduced fire under the body, and held herself on the fire.’
Title:Chapter 44, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a woman who ever dug into a hill with her own breasts; and ever held, on her head, a mill-stone like a cap. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by this body, whose soul suffered so severe a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the soul of that wicked woman who, in the world, destroyed her own infant, and threw away the corpse.’
Title:Chapter 56, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:Then I saw the souls of those whom serpents stung and ever gnawed. And I asked thus: ‘Whose souls are those?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘These are the souls of those wicked who, in the world, have been defrauders of their God and religion.’
Title:Chapter 61, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the souls of those wicked who swallowed and voided, and again swallowed and voided. And I asked thus: ‘What souls are those of these?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘These are the souls of those wicked who, in the world, believed not in the spirit, and they have been unthankful in the religion of the creator Ohrmazd. they have been doubtful of the happiness which is in heaven, and the torment which is in hell, and about the reality of the resurrection of the dead and the future body.’
Title:Chapter 62, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a woman who ever gnashed her own bosom and breasts with an iron comb. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by this body, whose soul suffers so severe a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the soul of that wicked woman who, in the world, despised her husband and master (or guardian,) and became and remained vile; being also herself untrue to him, and acted improperly with other men.’
Title:Chapter 63, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the soul of a woman who ever licked a hot oven with her tongue, and ever burnt her own hand under the oven. And I asked thus: ‘What sin was committed by this body, whose soul suffers so severe a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘This is the soul of that wicked woman who, in the world, offered defiance to her own husband and master, and became abusive; she also acted disobediently, and did not grant cohabitation at his desire; and she stole property from her husband, and secretly formed a hoard for herself.’
Title:Chapter 73, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh.Pahlavi Text:I also saw the souls of women who ever shed and sucked and ate the blood and filth of their ten fingers; and worms ever came into both eyes. And I asked thus: ‘Who are these souls? and what sin was committed by them who suffer so severe a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘These are the souls of those wicked women who beautified their faces [with makeup], and kept the hair of others as ornament; and they captivated the eyes of the men of God.’
Title:Chapter 99, Dimension:Each pieces 100*70 cm, Media:Silk screen print and Silk screen mesh. PAHLAVI TEXT:Then I saw many more souls of wicked man and woman; and they ever suffer terrible, fearful, hurtful, harmful, painful, dark, hellish torment and punishment of various kinds. Then I saw souls whose tongues were scraped with a wooden peg; and they ever went down, into hell, head foremost; and the demons ever ploughed their whose bodies with an iron comb. And I asked thus: ‘Whose souls are these? and what sin was committed by them whose souls suffer so severe a punishment?’ Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said thus: ‘These are the souls of those wicked who have been disobedient unto their rulers in the world, and have been enemies of the armies and troops of their rulers. Now they must here suffer such severe pain and torment and punishment.’
Title:Body, Dimension:180*140 cm, Silk screen mesh.
