After her successful collaborations with Dorothy Circus Gallery in the group show “God is Her Deejay” and the special event “Printemps Parisien,” and after exhibiting her paintings at Scope art fair, in New York, the Iranian artist Afarin Sajedi returns to Rome for her first official solo show at DCG, “Illusion”.
In this exhibition, opened on April 16th 2016, the viewers got the chance to drive through and dive into the artist’s suggestive brand new pieces; these deal with the theme of illusions – which also stands as the title of the show. Five shattering huge canvases welcome the viewer in the Red Hall of Dorothy Circus Gallery.
These stunning paintings are characterized by a central female figure on a plainly colored background, which is often cut by living elements and objects that cross a mystic scenario. The women depicted address identity and humans – whether men or women. They stand in their frames to communicate with all kinds of beholders, developing a silent speech made of suggestions and emotions, aimed at penetrating and striking the careful look of people admiring the artworks. Even though seemingly submerged in a deep sea of quietness, the women painted with acrylic brushes are meant to scrutinize the human soul, bringing to the surface themes related both to socio-political conditions and to the experience of inner feelings.
The word “illusion” is interlaced to the word “peace,” which must not be intended as the end of pains, but rather as “a new viewpoint in which ‘dreaming’ and ‘loving’ are bolder – two primary forces of the feminine world,” as the artists states. This constant can be visualized metaphorically in each painting, in which everything is enigmatic, suspended, undefined, on the boundary between reality and dream. “Illusion” is also linked to magicians’ illusions, in which the act of creating a misleading reality might even succeed in generating a personal utopia out of it, which could eventually keep one struck in the illusion’s confines.
While in Sajedi’s past production women’s faces came out of the darkness to describe feelings of pain, now the figures are calmer and dressed with accessories that remind of Futurism. Once more, some key elements are repeated in all of the canvases, creating a strong symbolic vocabulary that generates a particular surreal atmosphere, typical of Sajedi’s creations. Through each piece, the feminine figure undergoes a detailed study from different point of views.
The series begins with a profile view, in which a fish, used as a surreal headgear, stands out; it goes on with the first frontal view, in which the woman looks down, eyes closed, meditating beneath the headgear that acts as an insulator. This element keeps the women detached from the external world, so that she can dedicate all her attention to the fish only, which now lies just beneath her chin. In the second frontal view the figure is looking at the viewer, staring at him/her with her shiny gaze, almost looking for someone with whom to communicate. The fish has disappeared from the scene – only some spurts remain. Finally, a photographically-cut cut composition shows the same woman in an asymmetrical position, covered by a headgear that has now overcome and overloaded her. Her eyes are now covered by curious glasses, which seem to cease her longing for communication.
Together with these large artworks, Afarin Sajedi also exhibits smaller pieces that propose a different approach to her artistic production. Influenced by the artist’s love for classical arts and illustrations, these artworks own a narrative flow, they tell a story that is more figurative and less evanescent in the eyes of the viewers. More than one character appears, while the human features mix and are sometimes replaced by animal parts or beings. Again, the fish attracts the viewer’s attention as a symbolic reference to the flow of emotions that pulses into the painted women’s veins. The interrogative faces of the figures depicted question the beholders and invite them to discover the deepest significances of the artworks’ symbolism. The eyes of the characters are almost always closed, as if to highlight both the deprivations these women have to undergo in their daily life, and the capability they developed to observe the world through an “inner sight” that needs no physical eyes. Their feelings, and their ability to feel, is what makes these women strong and extremely fascinating to our external view.
