Morehshin Allahyari’s “Like Pearls” isn’t a GIF. It’s many GIFs, and it’s a beautifully complex, ear-crushing site: roses bloom out of panties, red lingerie GIFs glitter on and on—and there’s that Backstreet Boys MIDI that just won’t stop looping. Clicking on individual GIFs brings up pop-up ads that revel in (broken) English marketing lingo:
Underwear that hold the key to her heart
Underneath these panties, holds your love
Among these rosepetals, there is a hidden secret. Would you like to discover this secret with your lover?
But what does all this poetry mean?
In the site’s about section, Allahyari explains that “Like Pearls” is a “mash-up of sex and romance collected from my Farsi email spam and online underwear stores based in Iran.” Here versus there, lingerie consumerism is vastly different. For the most part, men purchase lingerie in Iran—in contrast to here in the States where shopping at Victoria’s Secret is actually just mom-and-daughter/BFF bonding time.
But there’s a universal element, too: The cheap lingerie advertisements that Allahyari came across aren’t necessarily Iranian. It’s the same lacy stuff you’ll find the world over.
From Like Pearls
From elsewhere on the Internet
More red lingerie
An ad for lingerie and Sears home?
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