"Iranian Door Knockers"

Iranian Door Knockers: Photographs by Alireza Jahanpanah

Artist talk and screening of a short film about this project: Sunday June 14, 2pm

Reception with live Iranian music by Nava Music Centre: Sunday June 14, 3pm

While travelling across Iran in urban and rural areas searching out indigenous and historical living spaces for a research project, architect and photographer Alireza Jahanpanah became interested in the beautiful and unique door knockers he encountered. The knockers, which are used to create a sound that sends a simple message from the outside in, came to represent a poetic expression of people, architecture, culture, and history.

Jahanpanah has researched the forging methods and designs utilized and will share the unique cultural and historical identity of door knockers as a nation’s relics plus the small part they play in Iran’s cultural heritage. Historically, men and women had separate knockers with different aesthetic characteristics and designed to produce a distinct sound which allowed the inhabitants to determine a visitor’s gender.

Jahanpanah is showing a selection from his collection of more than 2,500 photographs of Iranian door knockers, and two actual antique knockers. Jahanpanah was born in Tehran, Iran, and migrated to Canada in 2009.