Shirin Aliabadi (1973 – 2018) and Farhad Moshiri (b.1963) have been an Iranian contemporary art couple. Aliabadi´s work was focused on women's issues, gender representation, and the beauty industry, while her husband´s production is strongly rooted in Pop Art dialect with a subtle and subversive socio-political commentary. Moshiri is well-known fur overturning both pop culture and highbrow imaginary and transforming them into artworks. His pieces combine everyday objects with luxurious materials, thus appearing playful and decorative. However, behind the shimmering surface, the artist is criticizing contemporary societies and highlighting the limitations of the Western world. Together, the art couple developed the project Operation Supermarket (2006), a series of prints featuring commodity advertisements and manipulated packages of household objects, mixing “poetry with detergent”, as the artists describe. The world Supermarket refers to global consumerism, whose primary vehicle of manifestation is represented by such products. Indeed, the whole project aims to point out the pervasive effect of Western capitalism on the lives of the general public, with particular reference to the commodification of mainstream media traits of the Middle East.

“ A picture is worth a thousand words and a word a thousand pictures. „

—Farhad Moshiri & Shirin Aliabadi