Title: Tan-Ha
Year: 2022
Material: sponge, papier mache, ink
Editional: 1
Statement:
The body serves as the initial and fundamental space in which I resided and began my exploration. Within this space, there exists a simultaneous capacity for expansion and constraint.
Gender serves as an integral facet within my artistic endeavors. A collection of mine, entitled “Tanha” (The Bodies), carries profound metaphorical implications in Persian, encapsulating the notions of both the body and solitude. This collection showcases a monologue of the body, subsequently extending to conversations with other bodies. Within this collection, I explore the concept of bodily endurance, drawing inspiration from the works of Foucault, such as “Discipline and Punish, the Birth of the Prison,” which greatly influenced my understanding of the body.
Key themes within my work encompass the aesthetics of bodily wounds and scars, the aesthetics of bodily demise, the relationship between the body and its own shadow, the interconnectedness of bodies, and the friction arising from their interactions.
Being born in Iran, situated within the Middle East, I have witnessed the tumultuous history surrounding the female body within this region. Here, the female body remains subject to the control and possession of external forces, with power, dictatorship, and religion exerting dominance. This reality intertwines with concepts such as aggression, rebellion, unrest, confinement, resistance, and liberation. In contemporary Iran, the women’s revolution has transformed the female body into a critical component for societal control by the government. It exists as a body perceived to be entirely divorced from personal space and resistant to control. Every aspect related to the female body is experienced underground, encompassing dance, sexuality, beauty, and freedom. Yet, “The body incites tumult.”
This collection includes seven sculptures that I could not bring with me due to political reasons, and I am showing the analog photos I took of the collection.
