There are not many words in human vocabulary with such long history as "
Heaven & Hell". Although the idea of an afterlife
has been with us since perhaps the earliest stages of civilization, it reached an intense peak with the introduction of a masculine god. As the taboos surrounding the topic slowly subsided, it became a popular subject for literary scholars, poets, philosophers and artists.Early on, these
thinkers tried to remain sensitive to religious beliefs and speculations. With the coming of age of the age of reason, more personal interpretations started to creep in, and since all great thinkers were also simply humans, they had similar limitations of time and space; their heaven & hell partially portrayed their experiences as women (or men). Upon entering the 13 VANAK Gallery in mid-Tehran to see the works of {Behrang Samdzadegan}, I realized immediately that his h&h is no divine comedy but a parody pointing at an earthly tragedy.The artist playfully tells the story of an age that no
longer buys the torments of hell or the pleasures of heaven; an age that no longer accepts an unforgiving god, nor one with tempting promises. In short, I saw no sign of heaven in this exhibit. What I saw was a complete or an incomplete state of confusion. Then again, ain't that hell?