Artist Statement Ebru Özseçen, Şerbet (1999-2010), installation view, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University (2012). 16 mm film installation. Photo by Dot Paolo. Courtesy of the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art and the artist. Artist Statement:{{1}} Şerbet (1999-2010) The film shows a stack of Burma Baklava saturated with syrup like a cascading skyscraper. Şerbet, “sugared water” […]
Artist Statement Shahzia Sikander, stills from SpiNN (2003). Video animation. Courtesy of the artist. Shahzia Sikander, stills from The Last Post (2010). HD video animation, 10 minutes. Courtesy of the artist. Artist Statement: The digital animation SpiNN (2003) is a pun on the cable channel CNN. It depicts a mass of spiraling, abstracted forms, hovering like […]
Artist Statement Shiva Ahmadi, Oil Barrel #9 (2009). Oil on steel, 34 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. Collection of Howard and Maryam Newman, Courtesy of the Leila Heller Gallery, New York, and the artist. Shiva Ahmadi, Hades (2011). Mixed media, 80 × 60 in. Courtesy of Leila Heller Gallery, New York, and the artist. […]
Artist Statement Fatima Al Qadiri and Khalid Al Gharaballi, stills from Mendeel Um A7mad (NxIxSxM) (2012). HD video, 15:28 minutes. Courtesy of the artists. Fatima Al Qadiri, Bored (1997). Digital print, 64 5/8 × 78 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist. Artist Statement: My visual work examines the interplay among gender, style, and performance by […]
Artist Statement Artist Statement: My artwork examines how people and spaces become polarized as a result of binary divisions. During my formative years, Beirut was characterized by perpetual conflict—political alliances shifted regularly, often culminating in armed clashes. Those who shared geographical and socioeconomic markers of identity with political factions were seen as being a part […]
Artist Statement Lifting a Secret (2009). Still from performance at the Claire Oliver Gallery, New York. Courtesy of the Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, and the artist. Artist Statement: The idea, the thought, the draft are the bases for my artwork. My ideas come from everyday-life situations, social and cultural atmospheres. The idea expresses itself in […]
Artist Statement Parastou Farouhar, Ashura Butterfly, from the seven-part series Butterfly, 2010 Digital print on photo paper, 39 3/8 × 39 3/8 in. Courtesy of the RH Gallery, New York, and the artist. Artist Statement: The production of identity, and the repressive mechanisms by which it is reified, comprise the focus of my work. My homeland, Iran, is […]
Artist Statement From the series Miss Butterfly (2011) Fifteen photographs, each 27 ½ x 39 3/8 in. (70 x 100 cm). Courtesy of the artist. Artist Statement: Miss Butterfly is going to meet the sun; as she is looking for a way out and reaching for the light, she becomes caught in a spider’s web. Moved […]
Artist Statement Shredded Land (2011), from the Wounded Land series (2009-12). Papier mache made from Closures Maps of the West Bank & Jerusalem (July 2004), 64 × 55 cm. Photo by Udi Katzman. Courtesy of the artist. Artist Statement: Wounded Land grew out of a series of artworks called Border Land, created in 2000–07. Witnessing the violence, new walls, […]
Artist Statement The Source (2009). Acrylic and glitter on gessoed panel, 48 × 54 in. Photo by Adam Reich. © Negar Ahkami. Courtesy of Jasanna and John Britton and the artist. Artist Statement: My paintings draw inspiration from Iran’s patterned-art traditions and elaborate blue-tiled mosques. I apply multiple layers of congealed gesso and acrylic mediums, and […]
