Das kleine Schwarze, 2003- 2005
Acrylics and permanent marker on fashion advertisement (series of 10 poster) 180 x 120 cm.

The work "D"as kleine Schwarze by Iranian artist Shahram Entekhabi juxtaposes within a single image two seemingly irreconcilable aesthetic and ethical regimes – that of Western and Islamic culture. The former is afraid of anything that refuses to show itself; the latter of what might be revealed when it happens. The critique of the burqa is typically articulated in terms of women’s rights, violated by a backward religious doctrine. Yet without wanting to replace this explanation, an alternative hypothesis (explaining our unease with the burqa-phenomenon) is left unaddressed – the tendency of the West to perpetually ‘prepare’ all objects for their incessant circulation and subsequent consumption on the basis of a founding transparency that makes them structurally available and ‘gives them away’ in a manner (ironically) similar to the actual giving away of women in those very backward cultures. “All services 24 Hrs”.
Frank Schallmaier – Detail from “Flash”

Since 2001, Shahram Entekhabi covers all female heads and bodies in fashion magazines, on Persian miniatures, postcards or in advertisements with the black veil to sensitise the Western viewer to the practical use of the tchador as an ominipresent element of the every-day in his home-country Iran. Ironically, he refers at the same time to the common practice during the time of the Islamic revolution in Iran when the religious leaders censored books and magazines through covering images of female bodies:
and Islamic Carding

"Das kleine Schwarze" appeared at the following exhibitions among others:
2018: FACELESS, Curator: Bogomir Doringer, Elisabeth Hajek and Esther Brandl, Austrian Cultural Forum, Berlin, Germany
2014: Faceless an exhibition on seduction, surveillance and privacy, Mediamatic, Mediamatic, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2013: Faceless, curated by Bogomir Doringer, freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL, Vienna, Austria
2011: White Lies and Some Promises, AB Projects, Zürich, Switzerland (solo show)
2008: Mahrem - Footnotes on Veiling, Footnotes on Veiling — Tanas - Space for contemporary Turkish art, Berlin, Germany (closes down 3 Nov. 2013)
2008: Mahrem – Anmerkungen zum Schleier — Kunsthalle Vienna, Project Space, Vienna, Austria (catalogue)
2007: Modern, Islamic Veiling and Secular Imaginaries — santralistanbul, Istanbul - Turkey (catalogue)