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Ahmad Nadalian’s artistic works and activities on Hormuz Island, Qeshm villages, and areas where Sangari nomads live are extensive: On Hormuz Island, with an artistic vision and selecting soil as the subject of workshops, festivals, and virtual content creation, he caused the landscapes and colorful soils of Hormuz Island to be recognized as symbols of Hormuz Island. In Hormuz and Qeshm villages, he paid attention to abandoned environments and, while revitalizing them, transformed them into cultural and ecotourism centers.
Nadalian taught painting to many women and girls on Hormuz Island and in Qeshm villages, and they created collaborative works. Additionally, he encouraged people with addiction issues to engage in design and painted their raw and primitive designs on canvas. Another type of Ahmad Nadalian’s collaborative works was selecting objects that were often considered waste. However, through a process, he transformed them into installations.
He paved the way for women’s presence in social environments and managerial positions in Hormuz. In the field of Sangari nomad culture, he organized many festivals and events. One of his foundational research works was in the field of Sangari women and girls’ dance. After identifying the steps, he created the opportunity for them to have multiple performances. The outcome of this process has created conditions for women to actively participate in cultural programs. Such activities can be classified within the framework of Social Art, Social Sculpture, or Community-Based Art.
Why did Ahmad Nadalian turn to social art?
In the first decade when he worked in the field of environmental art, he concluded that communities with little income do not pay attention to the environment. In Hormuz, colorful soils were being looted. Some people earned income through smuggling goods. Only a few people made their living through fishing. Nadalian believed that through art, tourism could be promoted, and when local communities benefit from nature and cultural tourism, they themselves strive to preserve it. Through the artification of neutral natural landscapes whose beauty had been overlooked, he transformed them into vistas that are now considered art themselves, and tourists from around the world come to Iran to see them, and on Hormuz Island, they acknowledge these aesthetic landscapes as natural art. Certainly, people like Jerry Pollak had previously noticed this beauty. However, they lacked the motivation and media power to explain it and promote tourism growth. Nadalian’s action was explanation and media coverage. In his early years living on the island, he painted with the colorful soils.
The first time in 2013, when Nadalian gave a report on his activities on Hormuz Island at a meeting of managers and researchers of art in nature, Adam Clive, a British researcher who was present there, defined Nadalian’s activity within the framework of social sculpture and wrote a preface for the book on Ahmad Nadalian’s environmental and social art. Until then, he naturally chose his path in the field of art. Later, one of his students named Ms. Sarah Maleki conducted research on Nadalian’s works and comparative analysis with social sculpture in her doctoral research. This research helped Nadalian become more familiar with this field. Although “Shelly,” who was one of Joseph Beuys’s students, based on limited samples of Nadalian’s works that she has seen, believes that Ahmad Nadalian’s works are classified within the framework of Community Art. However, the approach of other researchers and artists with whom Ms. Maleki has spoken is different, and they have classified some of Nadalian’s works and activities within the framework of social sculpture.
Nadalian’s views on the effectiveness of art in society
Nadalian believes that “artists can redefine and symbolize pristine natural environments through their art, breathe new life into abandoned environments. Artists can create conditions within the framework of artistic works where other artists and ordinary people can creatively participate in that context.” Ultimately, society develops, distances itself from superstitions in the long term, and women become empowered.
The consequences of Ahmad Nadalian’s social sculpture or social art can be reviewed under various titles:
- Redefining Hormuz’s nature and symbolizing it as a rainbow island
- Creative participation of artists and local community in the process of executing artistic works
- Laying the groundwork for tourism on Hormuz Island
- Revitalizing abandoned environments
- Including marginalized and overlooked individuals
- Teaching women in the fields of art and tourism
- The role of art in Hormuz Island development with emphasis on women’s empowerment
- Increasing women’s self-confidence
- Revitalizing forgotten culture and art
- Future-oriented planning and groundwork for children’s growth, education, and libraries
- Converting harmful waste in nature into valuable art and cultural goods
Redefining Hormuz’s nature and symbolizing it as a rainbow island
Since 2006, Nadalian emphasized its importance through workshop management and selecting colorful soil for environmental art execution in nature, organizing festivals, and extensive media coverage of events. The artistic works had international resonance. Ultimately, he created conditions where landscapes that everyone previously passed by indifferently before the festival became important, and their colorful soils became symbols.
In the first artistic event in 2006, Nadalian, in addition to painting using the island’s red soil with the local name “Gelak” on students’ faces and hands, created paintings. This red soil is used as a food seasoning for preparing a dish called Souraq, which is a traditional food consisting of natural soil, a type of sardine fish, and bitter orange. Souraq is usually consumed with bread. Experience has shown that this colorful soil has no negative effects on the body.
Report and interview about the Persian Gulf Environmental Art Festival on the American Green Museum website
Advertising the edibility of red soil alongside its aesthetic appeal had a magical effect and transformed Hormuz into a magical destination. Nadalian repeatedly announced in his early years of living on the island through his websites and social media that this island is enchanting.
Historical evidence shows that for centuries past, the island’s red soil has been seen as a mine, and after extracting the soil, they would export it.
Ahmad Nadalian, in his early years of living on Hormuz Island, painted using colorful soils during a period. He painted hidden figures on canvas in colorful spaces.
Nadalian prepared a design and in a participatory work with island natives, using colorful soils on the beach, they created a large painting showing a Simorgh: Fabulous birds of Paradise.
Revealing mother and child hidden in Hormuz Island’s nature
Nadalian’s experience on Hormuz Island shows that art can change ordinary people’s and other artists’ perspectives toward natural landscapes. Documents published on Nadalian’s website show that he began this approach by designing and printing a map where sightseeing locations were named and using virtual space.
Now locals, especially Hormuz drivers, like artists creatively see figures in colorful and salty mountains and show them to tourists.
Creative participation of artists and local community in the process of executing artistic works
The starting point for artist participation began with Nadalian’s 2006 and 2007 workshops, focusing on the island’s colorful soils, which many artists developed using various methods. Initially, local artists from Bandar Abbas who accompanied Nadalian to participate in the festival, and artists who came to the island from various cities in February 2006, attracted the attention of Iranians and people from other countries to travel to the island through their artistic works. International artists who came to Nadalian’s center on the island for artistic residency were all effective in this path. The execution of large soil carpet projects by artists from Bandar Abbas had a profound impact on symbolization. Local artists and enthusiasts also worked in nature with colorful soils for several consecutive years.
Birds in the sky were watching the Simorgh: Fabulous birds of Paradise,, Hormuz Island, February 2008
Girls who were Ahmad Nadalian’s students loved painting and participated enthusiastically.
Using colorful soils for environmental art, glass painting by women, and executing soil carpets in the early stages had the environmental justification that since they are natural, they do not harm the natural environment. However, after tourism development and repetition of large-scale works for Guinness records, it had the reverse effect, and Ahmad Nadalian and many environmental activists criticized it, and it has now stopped. Even Nadalian’s students who painted on glass with colorful soils no longer do this type of painting.
Soil symbolization and Hormuz Island development continued through other methods by other artists. Over time, many artists have migrated to the island and each has developed soil symbolization in their own way through photography, filmmaking, and artistic works. Ultimately, art has been influential as a determining factor for environmental attention and social and economic empowerment in that region.
Including marginalized and overlooked individuals
From the early years of art activities on Hormuz Island and later in Qeshm villages, Ahmad Nadalian conducted collaborative artistic work with needy women and girls and men with addiction issues. Nadalian’s first goal was to show that even people living on a remote border island in marginalized neighborhoods, whom no one in that society took seriously, could be creative and be introduced as artists. He brought many people from the margins to the center. Now many of them feel empowered and introduce themselves as artists. The fact that Hormuz Island has had the highest per capita of marginalized artists in the past two decades testifies that Nadalian has been successful in this path.
مراحل انجام کار نقاشی دیواری در خانه کنیز
انجام طراحی بر دیوارهای خانه محسن در جزیره هرمز
Laying the groundwork for tourism on Hormuz Island
Tourism on Hormuz Island began in 2009. For environmental art festivals, museum neighbors were asked to prepare food for artists. Of course, this was symbolic behavior and a step for art economy to connect with tourism. At that time, Hormuz Island was not a tourism destination and had no restaurants. Nadalian first created a residential center for artists. Gradually, the number of tourists increased day by day, and Nadalian encouraged many island women to provide accommodation for tourists in local homes and cook for them. Women gradually became tour guides and manage ecotourism accommodations, hospitality services, and traditional cooking.
He helped local people change the use of their abandoned houses and establish ecotourism and traditional restaurants.
Now Red Beach and silver sands at the shoreline are among Hormuz’s tourist attractions. Sometimes thousands of people visit it in a day.
Nadalian believes that artists can reveal ordinary people’s hidden creativity and introduce them as artists. He paid attention to people living in marginalized areas whom no one in that society took seriously, but after Ahmad Nadalian’s collaborative work with them, they were accepted as artists in both artistic and local communities.
Revitalizing abandoned environments
During Nowruz 2009, Ahmad Nadalian purchased an abandoned and ruined building in the old neighborhood of Hormuz Island for five million eight hundred thousand tomans. This building was a hangout for drug users. With the participation of volunteer artists, all museum walls that were once abandoned buildings were painted and they participated in its construction work. Sometimes they provided financial support for purchasing some equipment needed by artists or people interested in such environments. Many students and researchers come to this place.
This place was initially used as an accommodation for artists and educational space. Local and international artists were invited to reside in this building and create artistic works. Their works were done environmentally or in interaction with the community. Nadalian transformed a ruin into a hub for environmental and social art.
By 2012, the building officially became Dr. Nadalian’s Museum. The entrance was redesigned with inspiration from indigenous architecture. Simultaneously, Pardis Art Center served as a gallery for Nadalian’s works and hosting artists, accommodating artistic works and artists there.
This museum is now known as a famous cultural symbol and has been introduced in international travel guidebooks to Iran, with a wide range of visitors – from tourists and artists to environmental experts, families, and groups from around the world visiting this place. The museum displays environmental artworks such as installations, video art, paintings, interactive installations, sand prints, dolls, etc. There are many objects that introduce local culture and handicrafts. Additionally, collaborative artworks by Nadalian and local women can be found in the museum gallery. These works are made from unused recycled fabrics.
Many workshops have been held here. We have had events for musical performances and ceremonial rituals. The museum has a library where children read books. Participating artists painted the central hall, eastern room, part of the courtyard, and entrance door. Colorful soils from Hormuz Island were often used for coloring the house.
Entrance to Dr. Ahmad Nadalian Museum on Hormuz Island
Nadalian, alongside personal and collective environmental artistic works in festival format, has repeatedly created opportunities for either himself or his artist guests to involve the local community in the artistic work process. Many artists have resided in his residential center. They left many works as mementos in the local place now known as Nadalian Museum. For many years, artists painted on walls or wrote texts. Artists came from other countries. They conducted artistic works in interaction with the local community. Then gradually, many artists came to the island after Nadalian and have permanent residence. They also conducted many works in their living environment and urban or natural environment in their own way.
International visitors watching the explanatory film at the Dr. Ahmad Nadalian Museum on Hormuz Island
German artist writing a German text in front of the current Dr. Nadalian Artist’s House and Museum on Hormuz Island
The German artist wrote in front of the current Dr. Nadalian Artist’s House and Museum on Hormuz Island, “You will never regret what you have done. You will regret what you have not done.”
Based on the explanations given above about Nadalian Museum, it can be said that Nadalian has had a significant share in shaping tourism on Hormuz Island, and many artists now reside on the island. Many artistic works are done. The alleys around the museum are all painted with murals, and in addition to artists and tourists, many women, girls, and children have actively participated.
Wall paintings and writings in neighborhoods within the framework of community-based artworks and organizing exhibitions in revitalized places could cause community reactions on one hand, and on the other hand, by painting themselves, they tried to show and strengthen their collective identity. Neighborhoods can appear unique with the concentration of artworks. Contemporary art also acts as a bridge between different groups within a community. Artists’ participatory art projects bring together people from different age, ethnic, and socio-economic spectrums and encourage dialogue and mutual understanding.
Perhaps the most important point is that arts such as social sculpture, community-based art, environmental art, public art, murals, and creating galleries in abandoned or marginalized environments create roles for local community development where residents interact and communicate with artists.
On one of the neighborhood walls around the museum, alley paths are marked from a top view. Most houses in this neighborhood have been converted into places for tourist accommodation and dining. Some resident artists of the island live around the museum.
After some time, without Nadalian’s interference, alleys that he had previously photographed became clean. Many people came to his center and museum and asked him to introduce their homes to tourists and artists. He told them that if your alley is dirty, tourists won’t come there.
Teaching women in art and tourism
In 2009, after studies and initial experiences on Hormuz Island, Nadalian decided to organize the first painting course with colorful soils. His goal was to help needy women work without government institutions’ help by learning to paint using natural materials like colorful soils and minerals.
In Hormuz, by creating workshops, he taught women to paint with colorful soils and earn income through nature-based, cultural, and artistic tourism. Its direct and tangible impact is seen in local people’s daily lives. In fact, he revealed ordinary people’s hidden talents. Art education for women and children has increased their self-confidence and given them economic independence. Women, as the local community, while having social presence in public environments, acted creatively and facilitated this change.
The reason for choosing colorful soil to create a new type of handicraft was that colorful soils and sands had the ability to be promoted as symbols. However, later, raw material selling and using soil quantities led him to teach making fake colorful soils, and gradually working with recycled fabrics replaced working with colorful soils.
In his classes, he showed the work stages to girls and women. Over time, techniques changed. The method he taught was suitable for women. Pounding soil with mortar, sifting, and painting without brushes, like decorative use of spices on food, was compatible with women’s work. He made brushes with goat hair and seabird feathers. The goal was for them to have income with a low budget.
In a society where sufficient jobs don’t exist, women and children suffer more. They become victims of violence. From my perspective, Hormuz Island, with all its beauty and historical grandeur, suffers.
After some time, girls and women established painting workshops in their own homes.
The role of art in Hormuz Island development with emphasis on women’s empowerment
Nadalian believes that women’s empowerment in any society can be a foundational and fundamental step in society’s development. Artistic works can support women in local communities in various ways. Nadalian’s participatory art projects with Hormuz Island women and Qeshm village women from different backgrounds created works that extend beyond the artistic work itself. These relationships can lead to support from art enthusiasts, and in a process, affect community women.
In the early years when women rode motorcycles, they weren’t comfortable. Nadalian wrote in his memoirs that he spoke with Mr. Khazaei, the harbor master, and the temporary Friday prayer leader, Mr. Abdolhamid Golzari. Nadalian’s view was that these women could be a symbol of a developed society. Over time, female and girl motorcyclists have increased significantly.
What remained as a legacy of teaching painting with colorful soil to island women was that island women became accustomed to presence in public environments, their self-confidence increased, and they became professional sellers.
Increasing women’s self-confidence
Nadalian’s long-term experience on Hormuz Island and Qeshm villages shows that art education and execution can be useful as a method for increasing self-confidence. Certainly, as someone who has traveled to Hormuz Island, you have seen that women have a very prominent role in various occupations.
In the early years when tourism gradually took shape, women’s first job in public environment was selling paintings. I believe that teaching painting to many women and marketing works in my early years of life on Hormuz Island played a very important role in increasing girls’ and women’s self-confidence. Based on this archetypal early experience, this has been transferred to another generation.
Revitalizing forgotten culture and art
Through field research and conversations with many elderly people, Nadalian collected many legends and stories being forgotten on the island. From his early years living on Hormuz Island, he researched folk culture. He briefly published it in a book titled “Hormuz Island Narrated by Ahmad Nadalian.”
One of the narratives that became a legend is the story of two sisters who were both queens and fell in love with a fisherman. The fact that in the past women were queens, had many capabilities, and expressed their inner issues through art became an excuse to refer to them as symbols for women’s empowerment. Of the two sisters who were in love, one succeeds and the other, who experienced heartbreak, paints her beloved on the wall and places mirrors in front of it to see herself and her beloved together. Triangular love and female choice is a strange phenomenon. Treatment through painting is also rare in folk culture. In Iranian literature, there are instances of triangular love and in other cases, love as women’s choice. Much documentation has been collected. Many interviews have been conducted with elderly people who are no longer among us. Over time, our documents will become more valuable.
In Nadalian Museum, guides tell the story of Bibi Gol and Bibi Surat Naghash (Bibi Portrait Painter) to tourists. Bibi Surat and Bibi Gol were formed on the edge of history and legend.
In addition to Nadalian’s community-based activities in the south, he always organizes social, cultural, and artistic events for Sangari nomads. In recent years, he has created conditions for forming a dance group called Warmaz Kakcha. Although he has carried on the work until now due to his own cultural credibility, opposition individuals favor the ruling tune and have created problems for people and centers like accommodations. For this reason, he has organized events several times in natural environments and accepted responsibility for them.
Future-oriented planning and groundwork for children’s growth, education, and libraries
Since purchasing the house on Hormuz Island, children frequented the artist’s residence environment. They received painting education and performed shows. Nadalian suggested to museum staff to establish the Hormuz Island Environmental Guardians Association alongside the Women Painters Association. The goal was more cultural activity. After inviting financial supporters and covering costs, Nadalian paid association members wages to teach culture, environment, artistic creation, and English to Hormuz Island children free of charge at Dr. Nadalian Museum.
Teaching culture, environment, and artistic creation to children of Hormuz Island at Dr. Ahmad Nadalian Museum, 2015
Alongside this, the creative library of Dr. Nadalian Museum on Hormuz Island was established. Children can use it easily without registration. They can play in the environment, have freedom to laugh, and most importantly, to shout. They paint and learn languages. If books are damaged, they aren’t fined. However, in cases that occurred, the child or family voluntarily bought replacement books. Child readers were given prizes after reading every ten books.
Children who participated in museum classes or were library members acquired good skills. They now have public speaking, public relations, and self-confidence. Several of them are now university students.
Converting harmful waste in nature into valuable art and cultural goods
Much of Nadalian’s work on Hormuz and Qeshm islands can be classified as Community Art because he practically created opportunities for women to join him, and in a process, great attention was paid to environmental protection. In the early years when Nadalian settled in Hormuz, in the western side of the city (Tiab Port), there was a place where people abandoned old embroidered satin clothes and pants in seawater. Their remaining in the sea would cause them to turn into microplastics and pollute the environment. Nadalian collected the lower parts of old embroidered satin pants from the sea shore, which are now preserved in the museum collection. Nadalian ordered women to do much work with recycled fabrics as patchwork and taught them to paint on glass using fabrics. In this process, environmental threat was transformed into cultural economic opportunity.
In one of Nadalian Museum’s rooms, he has collected women’s old pants from the shore and displayed the lower parts of them in his museum in Hormuz, Ahmad Nadalian’s house in Laft, and Pardis Art Center in Tehran. They have embroidered patterns and are the best collection of this type in Iran.
The lower parts of old embroidered Golabtun trousers collected from the seashore and kept in the museum collection.
Now, many women in Hormozgan either donate old trousers to the museum or the museum buys them from them. This change in attitude is seen as positive. This act was a kind of artification of the discarded.
Fabric painting behind glass, Ahmad Nadalian’s design, fabric recycling, turning threat into opportunity
Mannequins: Coexistence between Western body and ornate traditions
Once Nadalian saw many mannequins in Qeshm’s old bazaar. They were discarded as waste. He collected them all and asked Ms. Malahzadeh, who worked at the museum at the time, to paint decorative patterns on the female body. The final result has been displayed as installations in museums and galleries in Hormuz, Laft, and Tehran. After years of work, the local community has seen and believed that Nadalian can turn any waste into art.
Nadalian wanted to show coexistence between Western body and ornate traditions. This coexistence has emerged in our own lives.
In another work, he asked Ms. Narges Abiri to paint on a broken toilet bowl. For traditional Iranian society, this is a challenge: how an object that was considered waste and had no economic value has now become a cultural and artistic commodity with economic value.
Mahdieh Mallahzadeh doing henna designs on a mannequin
Nadalian wanted to show the coexistence between the Western body and rich traditions. This coexistence has arisen in our own lives.
The painted mannequin and the painting of a woman wearing an Arabic veil are held in a private collection.
The golden rose motifs on the broken toilet bowl of the loft house
Collaborative painting by Ahmad Nadalian and local community women
In many Qeshm Island villages, local people avoid depicting living figures due to some religious beliefs. Girls and young women of the island are excellent at painting decorative designs. I painted faces myself, and they painted backgrounds.
A joint painting by Ahmad Nadalian and one of the women of Qeshm villages
Designs painted by women show their hope and joy. Although they never use painting as a means to show their pain and wounds, I like to depict their suffering alongside decorative painting. In the artistic creation process, I like to reduce the distance between pain and design, and private and public. I live in the space between us.
Community-based art can fill cultural gaps between guest artist and local host in a society. In workshops, festivals, and exhibitions where people with different backgrounds participated in creating works, his art on the island helped Hormuz residents and tourists gain better mutual understanding and ultimately reduced social isolation. The key point was that in these areas, sometimes local communities were influenced by contemporary art and tried to localize it to their capacity. In this process, art is no longer imposed from outside. Nadalian Museum has revitalized many abandoned environments. He usually recommends to ecotourism and guesthouse owners to transform exterior walls and courtyards with painting and artistic work. In many cases, houses provided accommodation and food to artists introduced by Ahmad Nadalian to create murals in courtyards and exterior walls. In many cases, house owners and their families participated in the work. In such cases, they themselves felt they were artists and capable and grew alongside artists. When community members participate in guest artists’ artworks, stronger social bonds are created between them, and they develop a sense of shared ownership toward the cultural identity of those works. In such cases, art becomes a tool for social sculpture.
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