Ramin Haerizadeh's First French Solo Show at Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Ramin Haerizadeh's debut solo exhibition in France, 'But I Prefer Dogs with Uncropped Tails,' at Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris from September 13 to October 20, 2012, presents a jubilant explosion of collage. The Iranian artist sets aside his signature diabolical laughing figure—a creature combining a mullah's beard and an Iranian woman's chador—for a liberated montage of images. His canvases brim with references to Western art history, including Louvre masterpieces and Giotto's angels in blue skies, colliding with vintage Palmolive and Coca-Cola ads, Persian miniatures, pornographic stills from Pasolini's 'Salò' and 'The Decameron,' and press clippings of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, and France's May 1968 protests. The collages juxtapose the irreconcilable, like carnivalesque inversions of values. A recurring open mouth—a scream or laugh with bared teeth—echoes Raoul Hausmann's Dada photomontage 'ABCD' (1924). Christ appears potbellied in espadrilles, Hitler's face merges with a Raphael Madonna, and the Pope is rendered as a gay icon. The exhibition was reviewed by Léa Bismuth.