Thursday, January 14, 2010

Golnar Tabibzadeh - Victim of the Iranian State


Hey Everyone,


This week, I'll  be talking about a young Iranian artist, Golnar Tabibzadeh who is internationally renowned as well as controversial in her home nation of Iran. Tabibzadeh, 22 years old,  is from a strong family of intellectuals who have always gone against the mistreatment of women by the somewhat totalitarian Islamic Iranian State. Her mother, who had been rallying for pro-women's rights in the middle of the streets in Tehran, had once been bashed by the Iranian moral police. Young Tabibzadeh saw this event and it was the catalyst that lead her to paint paintings that explored the private lives and psyche of the Iranian people, particularly women.
In a interview with the Canadian newspaper The Toronto Star, Tabibzadeh said:
"Painting is like keeping a diary... I might see a cop hitting a girl and that would affect me. I try to put myself in the position of the different actors, of the cop hitting the girl, or of the girl being hit."
"Painting) is one of the few places where I can express myself without self-censorship — not like in the outside world, in the Islamic Republic, where a lot of people filter their words."
 Notably, much of  her work embodies a stark melancholy, cynacism and a dark edgyness to it. She captures the suffering of being a woman in Iran; living in a world where women are isolated and face nothing but restrictions on who they are, their sexuality and being in general. Her work no doubt epitomises the social criticism at what she sees as the tragic society that has become of Iran. According to The Toronto Star Tabibzadeh is "Drawing ample inspiration from the society surrounding her, Tabibzadeh pointedly satirizes the hypocrisy of an outwardly Islamic society wracked by sexual promiscuity and heroin or opium addiction." - I couldn't agree more with that statement.



A graduate of Azad University, one of the best art schools in Iran and the Middle East, she is the younger generation of intellectuals unsatisfied with Iran's backward government and the effect it has on their lives and freedom. Furthermore, even though Tabibzadeh has an honours degree, because the Islamic State forbids the depiction of any nudity,  the best of  her artwork (which are the nudes) can never be seen and appreciated by her own people she's paints as she can face persecution. What's more, she can never make money out of her art where on a rare occasion her nudes will sell but at a pittance. I honestly can say that's passion and it won't surprise me, if the the Islamic government were to collapse- I have no doubt her work would be revered by Iranians for centuries. Here are a few more pics of her work.



What do you guys think of her work?
That's all today.
Peace out. Make Art Not War.

1 comments:

Frank Shifreen | January 19, 2013 at 10:45 AM

Love Gol Nar's work. I will write the essay for her solo show in Tehran this year. I just love the paintings. They are wonderful human stories revealed instantaneously in the painting medium. What a wonderful talent

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