zarafshan
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Zarafshan (Zahra Baseri) is an Iranian Canadian artist. Her educational background includes a B.Sc in electrical engineering (completed in Iran), a BFA Honours Studio (first class) from the University of Manitoba, and an MFA from University of Waterloo. She works with a variety of media including painting, drawing, print-making, and sculpture. She has exhibited in Winnipeg with aceartinc, Hamilton with Hamilton Artists Inc, Winnipeg with La Maison des artistes, Montreal with Art Mur’s Fresh Paint / New Construction, and in Toronto with BMO 1st Art! at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. She was Manitoba’s provincial winner for BMO 1st Art! (2016), and the 2019 recipient of Silvia Knight Scholarship in Fine Arts, University of Waterloo.
Zarafshan describes her artistic practice as multidisciplinary. Her subject matters engage with cultural and socio-political issues.
PROTECTION–RESTRICTION
Stantec Tower – 10220 103 Ave NW
Zarafshan, #8, 2020-2021, ink on paper, digital print on transparent plastic sheet, 11.7 x 16.5 inches
ARTIST STATEMENT
From the viewpoint of an Iranian Canadian artist I create images, objects, and spaces that explore the relationships among different systems of power such as politics, religion, and culture. I employ various processes including but not limited to, drawing, sculpture, and painting. My artistic practice is more idea-based than material/medium based. Concepts come first followed by searching for certain techniques and materials. Therefore, I am in a constant state of developing new skills and experimenting with new materials. I deploy both hands-on processes and technological methodologies. This multi-disciplinary approach is also my way of democratizing materials and media.
I apply symbolism and allegory as modes of transferring meanings and commenting on current issues; from social and local to political and global among others. Through examining power structures or relations, and dismantling them formally and artistically, I respond to the world issues. Therefore, socio-political criticism is one of the major constituents of my work’s content. Craig Owens, American art critic, says “Allegorical imagery is appropriated imagery; the allegorist does not invent images but confiscates them. The allegorist lays claim to the culturally significant… ”. My methodology, influenced by my Iranian identity, usually includes “confiscating” the culturally significant imagery from Persian and Islamic art and craft. That said, in some of my works I take a more universal stance by creating images and systems that are cross-cultural.
Employing cultural iconography, I bring geo-political questions into my works most of which manifest design principles of symmetry, balance, repetition, and order. Aesthetically speaking, these elements might please the eye. In contrast, the content of the work—chaotic, turbulent and troubled—exposes the problems that an oppressive power system brings about. As a result, the form subtly and seductively draws the viewers in, opening them up to difficult content. In this way I analyze and reflect visually on power relations, political forces, and cultural conventions, addressing some of the troubling outcomes of today. Therefore, art as a poetic act and social activity, also involves political activism for me.
