Giclée on paper

Signed and numbered on the front.

Beyond their traditional function, postage stamps carry political and cultural messages embedded in their visual design and imagery. I am fascinated by the political messages and imagery of stamps.
As an Australian and an Iranian/Persian, I am always looking for ways to merge and synthesise these two identities.

I picked a vintage Persian stamp from the 19th century, scanned and vectorised it, replaced the portrait of the king of Persia/Iran (Nāṣer al-Dīn Shāh) with Queen Elizabeth II, and also changed the colour pallet to give it a pop-art feeling.

This artwork is part of my Poste Persanes digital art project that explores Iran's history and politics through the art of stamps in the Qajar dynasty era, and combines it with Australian/British visual elements.