Ego
In the slow
pace of today's art, I have thought several times with
myself about the social and historical role of the
contemporary art and today's artist, sometimes I
appreciate it and at other times the sorrow which
accompanies a contemporary person, forces me to call the
artist a vandal. Therefore an antithetical process has
imposed itself on my works.
At times, optimistically I have used the material in the
utmost possible way of consumption, and at other times
due to an anger and disappointment, I have eliminated
the material from my artwork.
The example for the consumption of material, can be seen
in my work, CHAMAR installation in first conseptual art
exhibition-Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Arts (2001)
and as well "The Expired poem" installation in 2013 .
CHAMAR installation consisted of thousands of burnt out
fluorescent tubes which were washed and cleaned and
later filled with hot bitumen and water, to imply the
bitterness of the moment.
Behind some of the tubes a statue of a crying woman was
placed. The refraction of the light made the image of
the statue to appear repeatedly.
The work was based on the rituals of the funeral
processions in some areas of western Iran.
The second approach, in which I practiced to eliminate
the material, can be seen in my installation works named
"Image 1-5" (Salzamt Gallery, Salzburg, Austria, 2012)
and "Ego" (the current work).
In "Image 1-5", the idea was to liberate the artwork
from limitations of material
The empty space above the stands and a written
description of the characters will combine with the
imagination of the audience and will create a sculpture
with a unique visual hermeneutics.
At the same time a white circle appears trying to
connect both the objectivity and subjectivity, in order
to create an overlap and concurrency among the two.
What has been shaped by our imagination, aims its weapon
at us or at someone else at a certain moment, threatens
us with a stone, pours urine on our feet, ignores the
fact that we are alive and carries out the ritual for
the forgiveness of the deceased over our bodies.
Here the "absence" multiplies by the number of the
thoughts and fluctuates in an indefinite time.
The absence creates an intellectual and physical
interaction. it becomes a religion with no sanctity. The
nonexistence incarnates and creates a gap between us and
itself. it finds an identity and its identity targets
the contemporary concept of the material.
"Ego" is a two-dimensional work(40cmx60cm), based on
playing with the implications and meanings of the words.
The work has been created with unusual material.
In this work, the two words "Maniat" (Farsi for ego),
and "Mani" (Farsi for semen) have been mixed.
The work consists of the minimum external material and
in fact has been created only with a material from the
atrist's body which is semen, a material produced by the
artist's body and at the same time the source of
reproduction and birth.
In both approaches (using the material and eliminating
it), the aim was to directly transform the idea to an
artistic statement.
Whichever approach I adapt, creation is the most
inevitable characteristic of the artistic part of my
personality.
In my mind and my works, black and white wont merge to
create a third colour, but they create a line with no
reconciliation.
In my world, classic or avant-garde art, old or modern,
art for art's sake or art for society, postmodernism and
modernism, or any other kind of antithetical idea has a
separate existence and has its own place.
The essence of my personality is not based on a mixture
of my givings and takings. It is in fact a blend, and
the noise created by the grating for this blend, is the
sound of my existence.
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