her short red hair.
Rabih Mroue, 15 minutes video intervention, Para Site International Conference 2013
Take This.
Rabih Mroue
Mnemonic plate #6
Mnemonic plate #5
عبث
Mnemonic plate #4
i don't have an image of happiness.
Mnemonic plate #3
moving from the popular front to the united front. solution.
For Barbara
I miss you, B.
Mnemonic plate #2
دسترسی محدود است
هر جا پا می گذاری دسترسی محدود است
.
پا می گذاری بر زمین
.
پا بر زمین
نگذار
.
این سرزمین هم مال ما نیست
.
تمام
.
Mnemonic plate #1
I feel disconnected,
I thought about death, I thought about you, and my mom.
Today for the first time I biked without my hands holding the handles, I opened my hands, fearfully, till I lost my balance. But the point was not finding the balance, it was being comfortable when unbalance. I was thinking about you. Your short red hair, and big teeth.
I really liked your big teeth. I loved kissing them with my teeth.
I am still disconnected, from my words, from the language.
I am loosing language.
What language?
A lnaguage
I want to write about a hill, a big red hill over a city but I only have an image. No words, no lines. It is not only a hill. It is an afternoon, with music, two people sitting on a bench down the hill. It is not only a hill, people have been murdered here, early mornings, when we were sleeping. Right here, where I imagine I am standing, lies a body. Lies your body. I am holding your body and running down the hill, I lost you one early morning. I woke up and I knew you were gone. I feel rusty. My teeth are rusty. I got a big scar on my right leg, you have not seen it. It looks like Chile. It is long and brown, it has a tiny little island as well.
You said, I lie. I think you are wrong.
I think, sometimes you can not tell the difference between a truth and a lie.
A LIE.
LIE.
I can never find the truth. The truth about wars, about stars, moon and why we were born.
The truth is I have never seen a dinosaur.
A DINOSAUR.
If I brush my teeth, you will not go away. You are between my teeth, right here. Like a cavity. I should break my teeth to get rid of you. Bad teeth.
The truth is I wont break my teeth.
Here.
you
I feel disconnected from you.
In memory of Harun Farocki.
Instead of using needle and ink to make a mark on his body, he used a cigarette to burn his hand, and make a point. Napalm burns at 3.000 C, cigarette burns at 400 C. As simple as it may be, this gesture and his language slap us in the face with a horrifying fact, and he does not want/let us to close our eyes to the picture, memory, facts and context. At this very moment, as I am writing these words, and as you are reading them, horrible things are happening in Palestine, Iraq and Syria. Why am I talking about these? Maybe because I am extremely mad? Maybe because I do not want to, and should not close my eyes to the fact, and the context? The sudden appearance of ISIS in Iraq is not that sudden, It is the unwanted child of the American invasion in 2003. The complicated mix of different religions, faiths and ethnicities in Middle East, is like an unknown formula to the western countries, their invasion has made this somehow magical balance, fatally unbalanced. The complex ethno-linguistic mix in countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey to name a few and the history of French and British colonialism give us clues about the current internal wars, ethnic cleansings and genocides in the region. In the Sykes–Picot Agreement, Mark Sykes, representing the British government, and Francois Georges-Picot, from the French government simply decided to draw straight lines on Syrian and Iraqi maps and divide the two countries into their colonies, without even realizing the depth of catastrophe such an action will create. It is said that, during a meeting, Mark Sykes pointed to a map and told the prime minister: "I should like to draw a line from the "e" in Acre to the last "k" in Kirkuk."
Those unknown oriental maps to the French and British colonist, those straight lines that they once drew, their constant invasion has killed thousands, and will continue to destroy more. These are facts, these are pictures, these are happening right now. Lets not close our eyes. In memory of Harun Farocki.
In memory of dearest Harun Farocki
ACRE summer 2014
Friday August 1, 2014 at ACRE. (Click on the image above to see the other images)
Like the lines of a hand, banisters of the steps, corners of the street, poles of the flag, all the segments.. I do not know what I did exactly, It was an obsession, maybe? An excuse, Maybe? I think about silent gestures, their repetition and their context, or maybe them being out of context. I imagine a territory, a fabricated territory where the body inhabits movements.
He once told me he had lost the negatives. One day before I leave, he took some photos of me, in the central part of Tehran, Meydoon Vali-Asr, Enghelab. It was a s strange day, I had so many mixed feelings; excitement, fear, feeling an absence.
He found the negatives. I am holding my breath while looking at them. This is not me. I left me that day on that grey bench. As I am writing, I remember my bus ride on the way back home. Looking out the window, passing by the sad old trees of Vali-Asr, looking at their reflection on the window, the uncertainties, the grief.
Those trees are far and gone, this poetic image is only an imagination.
Photo by Ardalan Zandyavari
Tehran by 35mm
Evanston Art Center Biennial Opening
"When there was joy" next to Dan Paz great video pieces.
Evanston Art Center
Packing up and leaving my studio.. I will miss this place so much.. I have cried, laughed, dreamt, lost hope, and spent many nights here. It is hard to remember all the happy and sad moments I experienced during the pass two years. I will miss you so much studio 357!
Studio 2012-2014
SAIC Graduation 2014
SAIC class of 2014 walked the stage! I can not believe I came such a long journey.. In the commencement ceremony Theaster Gates talked about greatness, and what greatness means. Trying to be internally motivated and not making art based on the market and its appreciation, is what an artist should remind himself/herself every day.
MFA show opening night, April 25th, SAIC
SAIC MFA Opening 2014
MFA show opening night, April 25th, SAIC
Installing the MFA show 2014
MFA Show 2014 in-progress
Installing the MFA show 2014
6018 North Gallery
"Risky Encounters" at 6018 North Gallery, 2014
There are some moments that you never plan for, they just happen.