Iranian Artists’ Works Recreated by L.A. Creators in ‘To Share a Stomach’

Six months after the United States and Israel began striking Iran, with no end in sight, the U.S. launched fresh airstrikes Tuesday, ending a month of relative calm.

Last March, as Tehran endured daily aerial bombardment and an internet blackout during nationwide anti‑government protests, Los Angeles‑based curator Aram Moshayedi started corresponding with Iranian artists about a possible exhibition in the United States. Travel and movement for the artists—and their works—were impossible, so a new approach was needed.

For the pop‑up show “To Share a Stomach” at the nonprofit art center The Brick, Moshayedi invited Los Angeles and other local artists to produce pieces based on the Iranian creators’ instructions. Using manuals, machine translations, Zoom meetings, and file transfers, the American artists acted as proxies for those constrained by circumstances beyond their control.

The exhibition feels raw, with modest, unpolished works that evoke compassion rather than overt political statements. It reminds viewers that Iranians and Americans share common humanity—a point especially resonant in Los Angeles, home to the largest Persian diaspora outside Iran.

Although the show’s format resembles a wartime exhibition, its subject matter explores Iranian history and current affairs. Documentary photographer Hashem Shakeri’s image of a lone figure beside a kahur tree in the drought‑stricken borderlands of Iran and Pakistan was transformed by Los Angeles painter Laura Owens into a large monochrome where the tree appears blood‑red against a soft pink sky and sand.

Other pieces function as reinterpretations or continuations. Meghdad Lorpour’s recent drawing of a seven‑fingered hand gripping wilted flowers inspired Los Angeles draftsman Karl Haendel to create a stark, hyperrealistic version that mirrors the original’s surreal tenderness. The contrast highlights a compassionate misreading of the source material.

Communication gaps and translation errors abound, yet the exhibition celebrates the effort to connect, value, and love despite inevitable imperfections. Even the title is a sympathetic mistranslation: “To Share a Stomach” is an Angeleno misreading of the Persian “hamdeli,” meaning “empathy,” which shares a root with the word for “stomach.”

Collaborations unfolded through email and WhatsApp. Painter Aidin Khankeshipour proposed a still life; photographer Gina Osterloh supplied a horse skull, flowers, and a marble‑frozen performer. Iranian artist Maryam Mohry sent spare watercolors of animals, inspiring Kate Costello to paint miniature scenes of insects, birds, and bears. Mimi Amini’s idea for a glass sword became a suspended, translucent blade—essentially a see‑through Damocles—crafted by Kelly Akashi in Los Angeles.

Many individual works are modest and forgettable, as is typical of group shows, but their significance lies in how they affirm shared human ideals that war and hard‑line governments attempt to sever. These quiet creations serve as a subtle defiance of blockade.

In stark contrast, a recent AI‑generated video posted by the U.S. commander‑in‑chief depicted Iran’s Kharg Island exploding in a pixelated fantasy devoid of real referents. The artists in “To Share a Stomach” counter such imagery, insisting that genuine pictures can still bind people and that war is not merely a rendered effect.

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