From Shah to Supreme Leader
by Michael FitzGerald
The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3, 2016
“When you visit New York University’s Grey Art Gallery to see “Global/Local 1960-2015: Six Artists From Iran,” don’t miss the basement. Deep underground, the last work in the show will shake you. Shiva Ahmadi’s animation, “Lotus” (2014), is not one of those plodding videos almost everyone avoids. At less than nine minutes, it grabs viewers and immerses them in a terrifying parable of enlightened government turned bad. With remarkable subtlety and stunning beauty, a peaceful world presided over by a Buddha-like leader is transformed by merchants of death into a wasteland of violence and wanton destruction.”