StatementMarch 6, 2014

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STATEMENT

 

My work is grounded in the tradition of representational painting, but it is driven by personal urgency. Through large-scale, life-size self-portraits, I explore themes of identity, masculinity, vulnerability, and the psychological effects of displacement. I am an Iranian artist who has lived and worked across three cultural contexts — Iran, Ukraine (which I was forced to leave after the war began), and now Canada. This migration has shaped not only my life but the very language of my art. In each painting, I use my own body as a vehicle to negotiate histories that are both collective and deeply personal.

 

I received foundational training in painting at the University of Tehran and later in the social realism academic tradition at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. My technical background is rooted in anatomical precision, classical composition, and disciplined observation. However, over time, I grew restless within the boundaries of formalism. I began to move toward a more conceptually engaged and emotionally charged practice. This tension between academic realism and expressive reinterpretation animates my current body of work. I use realism not to idealize, but to confront. The human figure, rendered with accuracy and intention, becomes a site of fragility, transformation, and narrative complexity.

 

The shift to self-portraiture was a turning point. What began as a technical exercise quickly evolved into a deeper investigation into how my identity has been shaped by culture, conflict, and geography. Raised in a patriarchal society, I internalized traditional notions of masculinity — strength, sacrifice, emotional restraint — reinforced by military service and a national culture marked by war. As I moved through different countries and educational systems, I began to question those expectations. Painting became a way to challenge inherited roles and reimagine vulnerability as a form of agency.

 

Each work begins with direct observation — often using a mirror — and evolves into layered allegorical compositions. I incorporate symbolic elements from Persian mythology, Iranian revolutionary imagery, and personal memory. For example, Flames of Agency references the myth of Siavash, a figure known for purity and sacrifice. I depict myself on a black horse, riding through flames that divide past from present. Other works, like The Second Skin and I Dreamed of Bones, reveal the figure in transitional states — wounded, contemplative, or searching. At life-size, the viewer encounters these figures as if sharing space with them, reinforcing a sense of presence and confrontation.

 

Though deeply autobiographical, my work resists fixed interpretation. The compositions are fragmented and open-ended. This ambiguity reflects the instability of identity, especially in the context of migration. I draw on psychoanalytic theory — particularly Lacan’s mirror stage — to explore the distance between self-perception and external image. The gaze, the mirror, and the repeated motif of the right hand all raise questions about authorship and control.

 

Painting the self, for me, is both an act of exposure and reclamation — a way of asserting presence in a world that too often renders us invisible.