Heliya Haq's Photographs Document Women's Struggles in Iran

Iranian photographer Heliya Haq (Tehran, 1992) presents her project 'Crisalide: dalla trama alla rivelazione' (2021) at the former studio of Piero Manzoni in Milan's Brera district. The work critiques the oppression of women in Iran through symbolic imagery: henna tattoos marking virginity, transparent black funeral veils alluding to existential mourning, torn silk referencing female fragility, and the chrysalis as a metaphor for transparent captivity. Haq's practice engages with feminist photographic traditions from Shirin Neshat's documentation of the 1979 Islamic Revolution to Ana Mendieta's body art. In 'Dreamer' (2018), she gazes out a window toward a new light. Her series 'Acidized Faces: Protest Work' (2016) depicts women disfigured by acid attacks, a form of domestic violence. Haq notes that women in Iran cannot sing solos, only in chorus so their voices are submerged, and that women are identified as 'daughter of' or 'wife of,' making identity formation difficult. The project also includes 'Me, Myself and I' (2018), a reconstruction of fragmented identity using bleached canvas pieces that render faces unrecognizable, evoking mummies and violence. Haq's reading direction follows Persian, from right to left, creating estrangement for Western viewers. The work ultimately proposes a new, more conscious feminine awareness emerging from deformation and deconstruction.