Artist Statement
With the triptych "Sanctionwear" I seek to make visible, simultaneously, the collective punishment and the culture punished. I intend to highlight scars and heritage, and inquire the potential of humanity.
In the first piece, the "Rising Sun", the focus is on the "Executive Order Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran". Out of the executive order rises the Goddess Mitra. She represents the warm, nurturing, feminine, and benevolent power of the rising star. Mithraism, a faith rooted in Iran, competed with and influenced Christianity during the Roman Empire.
The USA's sanctions against Iran have an overwhelming impact on access to medicines and health. The second dress "Becoming Immortal" intends to be a eulogy to Avicenna's (Ibn Sina) ability to cure patients even after his physical death. In this way, Avicenna reached immortality, overcoming the fear of extinction. Avicenna was an Iranian polymath and his "Canon of Medicine" was used as a standard medical textbook in the West up to the 18th Century. The dress is composed of "The World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines" overlapping with the USA's sanctions against Iran. Avicenna is recomposed with the list of local anesthetics found in the model list and supersedes the Model List.
The third dress, "A glass of wine", was inspired by Omar Khayyam. A glass of red wine was poured over the "Travel Ban" and, Omar Khayyam's verse "this moment is your life" is written over it. Nowness powerfully releases fearlessness. Through the practice of nowness Khayyam frees himself, and us, from the fear of Government(s), God(s) and Death. Omar Khayyam, too, was Iranian and his poetry widely known in the West.
In "Sanctionwear", the collective punishment continues to exist but also transforms, and other realities overlap. We wear the sequel of these punishments and their transformations. Furthermore, we wear the basic goodness of the rising sun, the fearlessness released by the power of now, and the potential of immortality.
Dimension: approx. 117 x 41 cm x 3; Materials: "Executive Order Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran" + mixed media.+ "The World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines" + List of essential local anesthetics found in the WHO Model List + Wine + "Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States" + Omar Khayyam's verse "This moment is your life"; Completion Date: 2019
With the triptych "Sanctionwear" I seek to make visible, simultaneously, the collective punishment and the culture punished. I intend to highlight scars and heritage, and inquire the potential of humanity.
In the first piece, the "Rising Sun", the focus is on the "Executive Order Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran". Out of the executive order rises the Goddess Mitra. She represents the warm, nurturing, feminine, and benevolent power of the rising star. Mithraism, a faith rooted in Iran, competed with and influenced Christianity during the Roman Empire.
The USA's sanctions against Iran have an overwhelming impact on access to medicines and health. The second dress "Becoming Immortal" intends to be a eulogy to Avicenna's (Ibn Sina) ability to cure patients even after his physical death. In this way, Avicenna reached immortality, overcoming the fear of extinction. Avicenna was an Iranian polymath and his "Canon of Medicine" was used as a standard medical textbook in the West up to the 18th Century. The dress is composed of "The World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines" overlapping with the USA's sanctions against Iran. Avicenna is recomposed with the list of local anesthetics found in the model list and supersedes the Model List.
The third dress, "A glass of wine", was inspired by Omar Khayyam. A glass of red wine was poured over the "Travel Ban" and, Omar Khayyam's verse "this moment is your life" is written over it. Nowness powerfully releases fearlessness. Through the practice of nowness Khayyam frees himself, and us, from the fear of Government(s), God(s) and Death. Omar Khayyam, too, was Iranian and his poetry widely known in the West.
In "Sanctionwear", the collective punishment continues to exist but also transforms, and other realities overlap. We wear the sequel of these punishments and their transformations. Furthermore, we wear the basic goodness of the rising sun, the fearlessness released by the power of now, and the potential of immortality.
Dimension: approx. 117 x 41 cm x 3; Materials: "Executive Order Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran" + mixed media.+ "The World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines" + List of essential local anesthetics found in the WHO Model List + Wine + "Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States" + Omar Khayyam's verse "This moment is your life"; Completion Date: 2019