The beautification of cities is normally achieved by placing public artworks in attractive open spaces, especially squares and parks. Such aesthetic features help tremendously in eliminating the visual monotony of cities. Kerman, Iran has had an impressive history of public artworks by local artists, however, the municipality of Kerman has been plagued by corrupt administrations with inadequate experience in urban planning and with a deep mistrust of local artists. 

After Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979, the effort to showcase the works of Kerman artists in public spaces was soon replaced by the erection of mass-produced sculptures created in studios owned by personal friends and associates of local government officials. The public sculptures that can be found in and around Kerman today are primarily representations of animals that are anodyne and devoid of any social or political messaging.

The photo series Zoology is a guerilla-style intervention that temporarily transforms the banal animal sculptures into dramatic artworks that critique their own means of production. Over the course of a year and without being apprehended by authorities, I managed to sheathe the city’s public sculptures in various materials such as Sellotape, gauze bandages and plastic wrap and then I photographed them. This series is a protest of the censorship of local artists and it also calls attention to the nepotism and corruption endemic in the Iranian government.