Birds: Pattern (dis)Placed, 3D printed Resin, 201
ECH: Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and raised in Iran and moved to Canada in 1992 to study. After receiving my Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Waterloo, I started my professional practice as a visual artist as well as my teaching career. I have been fortunate to exhibit my work across Canada from Halifax to Vancouver. Currently, I teach at Western University.
ECH: Briefly describe your art practice.
My practice questions displacement, dissemination, and reinsertion of culture by re-contextualizing culturally specific ornamentation and various collected souvenir type objects. I navigate the terrains of cultural translation by exploring ornamentation as a form of “portable culture” that can be carried across cultures and nations. My work aims to destabilize the origin of culture and reconstruct Homi Bhabha’s “the third space of in-betweeness”: a site of cultural translation, where locations of cultures are negotiated, and new narratives are adapted and hybridized.
ECH: What role does your cultural identity play in your work?
As an immigrant, my work hinges on my experience of living between two cultures. The negotiations that arise from an in-betweeness are at the heart of my practice.
ECH: As a person of colour, what challenges do you face navigating the art world?
One of the challenges for me has been avoiding categorization of my work as ‘ethnic art’. Although my work employs culturally specific motifs, the conceptual grounding of my work speaks to the language of contemporary art and it does not necessary focus on my ethnic background.
ECH: Could you share a little bit about your experience during the pandemic?
Although galleries and museums were closed for an extended period of time, I found the online programming to be very accessible and opened up opportunities that did not existed before such as being able to attend artist talks anywhere in the world!
ECH: If any, can you tell us about your connection/experience/history with the Embassy Culture House?
I am new to Embassy Culture House. However, I have known Jamelie Hassan for over a decade and have been involved in a number of projects/exhibitions with her over the years.
I was born and raised in Iran and moved to Canada in 1992 to study. After receiving my Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Waterloo, I started my professional practice as a visual artist as well as my teaching career. I have been fortunate to exhibit my work across Canada from Halifax to Vancouver. Currently, I teach at Western University.
ECH: Briefly describe your art practice.
My practice questions displacement, dissemination, and reinsertion of culture by re-contextualizing culturally specific ornamentation and various collected souvenir type objects. I navigate the terrains of cultural translation by exploring ornamentation as a form of “portable culture” that can be carried across cultures and nations. My work aims to destabilize the origin of culture and reconstruct Homi Bhabha’s “the third space of in-betweeness”: a site of cultural translation, where locations of cultures are negotiated, and new narratives are adapted and hybridized.
ECH: What role does your cultural identity play in your work?
As an immigrant, my work hinges on my experience of living between two cultures. The negotiations that arise from an in-betweeness are at the heart of my practice.
ECH: As a person of colour, what challenges do you face navigating the art world?
One of the challenges for me has been avoiding categorization of my work as ‘ethnic art’. Although my work employs culturally specific motifs, the conceptual grounding of my work speaks to the language of contemporary art and it does not necessary focus on my ethnic background.
ECH: Could you share a little bit about your experience during the pandemic?
Although galleries and museums were closed for an extended period of time, I found the online programming to be very accessible and opened up opportunities that did not existed before such as being able to attend artist talks anywhere in the world!
ECH: If any, can you tell us about your connection/experience/history with the Embassy Culture House?
I am new to Embassy Culture House. However, I have known Jamelie Hassan for over a decade and have been involved in a number of projects/exhibitions with her over the years.
