My work is driven by the expressive potential of Persian art. Over 25 years ago, I felt that the brutal repression in Iran, and degrading misperceptions of Iranian humanity and culture from the outside, called for a non-poetic Persian aesthetic. My punk-feminist, playful symbolism confronted misconceptions, while paying tribute to Iranians’ unheard vitality and dissent, and to the global relevance of their artistic heritage. My unique aesthetic blending complex with cartoonish, exquisite with raw, aimed to express the maddening contradictions between crude stereotypes and rich inspiration, propaganda and humanity, that overwhelmed my Iranian-American experience.
While rich with layers of meaning and intense feeling, my work is enjoyed as an engaging visual experience. In person, my paintings shimmer with bas-relief, glazed surfaces that resemble textures and patterns in Iran’s architectural mosaic tiles and ceramic objects. Viewers have often mentioned other visual associations in my work, to Chinese Blue and White, Majolica, Azulejos, enamelwork and Matisse. I intentionally interweave my Persian influences with other visual histories which have commonalities with, and/or developed from established precedents from, Iran and its neighbors. My use of ornamentation is, by design, intended to create a space of seamless interconnectedness, and to resist erasure.
I have used precious details in my work to incite viewers’ eyes to wander around the picture plane. With this “eye travel” in experiencing my work in person, one might discover a detail teaming with satire, rage, anxiety, or anguish. For most of the last two decades, unstifled emotions related to the framing of Iran (and the lack of awareness of its richness) filled my loving tributes to Persian art history. My newest works, however have a different tone. The feeling of tension is released. I now wholeheartedly embrace the light and exuberance that I find in Iranian art and culture. In my work now, I look to my Persian influences as beacons of light in dark times.