Parable of the Garden

Parable of the Garden was a new media exhibit which displayed art from Iran and Central Asia. Students had to curate the exhibit and show how the pieces responded to the culture. Shahram Entekhabi work deals with immigrant identities in other places and was one artist who's was featured in the exhibit. His artwork was entitled Happy Meal and it was video which was thirteen minutes long. The video consists of a Muslim girl eating a McChicken Happy Meal in a German McDonald. The girl is wearing a chador, which is a open cloak worn by some female Iranians. As you watch the delighted child devour the sandwich you look past the foreigner status and just see a child. Once she has finished eating the sandwich she tries to open the Happy Meal toy and you see how the chador hinders her ability to do this simple task easily. After a while she places the toy under her chador and tries to open it that way. It is then that you only see her expression on her face as she struggles to get the toy open. After a while she finally succeeds and you see the joy on her face before you even see the toy. Entekhabi explores how the the culture of the immigrants is brought with them from home and how others perceive it.