ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Each time I visit Iran I became more acutely aware of the cultural mores governing what would be deemed "inappropriate", an accessible state-of-being within any culture. Growing up an Iranian within America had been arduous and awkward compounded by being a female of Muslim background. As a whole, we, as Iranians, had little consciousness of assimilation because of a constant denial of our permanence in America. Being a young woman born into the new name of the Islamic Republic of Iran involves a certain degree of uncertainty over one's identity. In Iran, I found myself to be transgressive, yet within American culture being Iranian is transgressive in that American individualism and Iranian deference to tradition were irreconcilable. Traveling down one of those paths meant turning your back on the other even if the defiance was temporal; this was the hidden catch of the formation of my identity. The contradictions caused my head to constantly bounce around the question of inherent identity- that which is exterior and self-defined versus inward and pre-determined. Backgammon was very similar to my deduction– sixty percent luck, forty percent skill.
For example, I am from a Muslim background, yet I have a fascination with popular culture and its accessibility to modern day Iran. Still, boundaries exist; youth in the age of media and Internet grow up within the confines of a strict traditional society. The decision to engage with painting was, initially, independent any intent to blur boundaries between tradition and the avant-garde. I paint to give expression to Iranian modernity and experiences. The question to consider is how we, as Iranians whether living abroad or under the flag of the Republic, can claim our modern existence while still owning our traditions; it is, therefore, about lived experience and how to claim that experience albeit irreconcilable with legal appropriateness.
Paying close attention to the cultural taboos identified by distinctly different social groups, particularly those of gender, race and socioeconomic position, my work reflects the crosspollination, or lack thereof, in our “modern” society. Since I myself am considered a taboo in that I am a conglomerate of equal, yet irreconcilable cultural forces, my work challenges plebeian notions of acceptable behavior. This is evidenced by the self-portraiture and autobiographical echo in each of my pieces. I draw on realism and renaissance painting to bring a focus on accepted beauty and its relationship with art history under the guise of traditional Persian miniature painting. I am aware of my indulgence in an anachronistic practice which is labor intensive and, perhaps, limited in the scope of its impact. My interest, however, is in painting a present which is of and intrinsically linked to the past, making it easily understood by the Iranian and inductive of assumption for the westerner.
The new work has been inspired by Iranian clerics suggesting a “cultural campaign” against Iranian women and their Westoxication. My new interest in sculpture follows the words of Lynda Benglis, “What if I was my own subject and my own object, looking back at the men and the viewer in general?” This presents the effect that desire can have on an object. In the end, I am the Corrupt Minority.
