Longing Girls is a collection of works borrowed its name from one of Ahmad Shamlou’s poems, the Iranian contemporary poet. Architecture, in these paintings, is deployed as a metaphor for demonstrating restriction and domination of patriarchal society over women. These pictures depict female figures inside sections of old buildings. On one other hand, an architectural space serves as a shelter for living and experiencing a sense of security and, on the other hand, as a keepsake box containing memories of people’s past lives, crucial in forming their personal identity. Home acts as a line between private and public spaces, which is exemplified in interior-exterior dichotomy of Persian architecture. And women had barely made an appearance in public spaces.
This group of paintings features dilapidated and crumbling houses where the
reflation of structural forms and women in water mirrors everything. It seems as though these life stories and memories are repeated over in every generation.
The women’s eyes, however, are fixed on the outer word, waiting for change to
come, to grow, to be free, and to thrive.

Katayoun Moghadam / October 2023