“Pink in Ashes,” a powerful, timely and exquisite exhibition by New York City-based Iranian American artist Azita Moradkhani, was once scheduled to show in the University Gallery at the Star Store Building.
But the sudden and unceremonious closing of that building by the UMass Dartmouth administration in August 2023 led to a rescheduling to the CVPA Campus Gallery, located in a cool gray concrete building, designed by the brutalist architect Paul Rudolph. Unlike the originally planned location, the walls are not high, the space is awkward and there is no natural light.
However, Gallery Director and Curator Viera Levitt, working in partnership with Juli Parker, the director of UMD’s Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality, transformed the cold misshapen box of a gallery into a cozy space, with intimate lighting and one wall painted a delicate shade of pink.
It is entirely appropriate for the dozen works by Moradkhani, which include intricate drawings of lingerie. When she first visited a Victoria’s Secret store after moving to the United States, she was shocked to see such a large store of its kind in public spaces, as in Iran, such places are secret and private.
She went on to do a series of colored pencil drawings of brassieres, briefs and other intimate apparel that she called “Victorious Secrets” that emphasized the connection between sexual representation and national identity and between what is private and what is public.
