Homescape Borderland

Opening Reception: First Friday, December 1, 6-9pm

"Homescape Borderland" delves into the unique perspectives and emotions of Iranian female artists who have migrated to foreign lands. It explores how they navigate the weight of their homeland's struggles while shaping new identities and the consequent need to construct a sense of home in the diaspora. The exhibition relies on video art as a pivotal medium, allowing for a fluid representation of the artists' experiences. Through moving images, time, and space, their expressions are liberated from conventional constraints, giving voice to their deepest emotions.

This exhibition aims to examine how these artists grapple with the violence and atrocities against the female body in a patriarchal society, leaving an indelible mark on their lives, even as they find themselves physically removed from the situation.The exhibition will follow distinct narrative threads for each artist, capturing their journey from witnessing the upheavals in Iran to finding solace and creative expression in their diasporic experiences.

The goal of "Homescape Borderland" is to stimulate empathy, foster understanding, and encourage dialogue, all while celebrating the resilience and creativity of the featured artists.

Works in the Exhibition

Window (2023)
Parisa Ghaderi
Single Channel Full HD video, color, sound, 2023 (1:13)

Window is a single-channel video that delves into the connection between the physical places the artist inhabits and the landscapes etched in her mind. In this piece, Ghaderi weaves together the realities of her everyday life with memories and news from her homeland, crafting a portrayal of the duality of her diasporic existence. Through this artwork, viewers are invited to explore the intricate interplay between presence and absence, forging a deeper understanding of the artist's complex relationship with her past and present realities.

The Tongue in the Landscape (2022)
Alieh Rezaei
Performance/Video, Full HD, Color, 2022 (13:38)

The Tongue in the Landscape is a three hour performance that features the artist laboriously peeling the wax layer off the pieces of bark as she holds them, one after another, in her arms or lap. Portions of the wax eventually, after much scraping and blowing on them to get the wax warm, would pop off the bark. This gesture suggests manipulation and re-formation of the material that acts as a kind of search for enjoyable suffering beyond rational pleasure; but at the same time, It serves as a poignant reminder of humanity's innate urge to disconnect from nature in pursuit of cultural development, leading to the necessity of forging a new sense of belonging in a diasporic existence. For the viewer, her attempt was to create a haptic effect through the transference of visual experience to corporeal experience with a focus on sensual predilections for touch.

Sraosha (2023)
Elly Kalantari
Single Channel Full HD video, color, 2023 (1:13)

This video serves as an exploration of Kalantari's multi-layered reality as a diaspora artist. By merging an original video recording of her performance, where she engages in repetitive tasks amidst white clothes while her body is covered with paint, and subsequently projecting that video onto an installation crafted from those very cloth pieces, the artist ingeniously employs metaphorical elements. In doing so, the artist leaves a trace of her actions, effectively marking the space with her creative expression and inviting viewers to experience the interplay between performance, projection, and symbolic representation.

Animal Farm (2023)
Masoumeh Mohtadi
Single Channel Full HD video, color, sound, 2023 (3:14)

Drawing inspiration from George Orwell's Animal Farm, Mohtadi offers a reflection on her firsthand experiences of living under the oppressive rule of a totalitarian regime and its manipulative distortion of reality for self-serving purposes. Through her video, she presents a visual interpretation of this situation, intertwining her personal perspective with the original narrative of Orwell's book.She aims to liberate the reader's imagination and encourage unbounded interpretations, where common understanding is not the primary goal. She seeks to foster connections that are uniquely personal and transformative to each individual engaging with her work.

About the Artists

Parisa Ghaderi is an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Technology at Shoreline Community College. She is an interdisciplinary artist, driven by a deep sense of social consciousness. As a creator, storyteller, and educator, her work traverses diverse mediums and disciplines. Having lived both in Iran and the United States, she’s discovered a unique in-between state of existence—a constant interplay between two worlds, never fully arriving or entirely leaving either. Her work has been displayed in esteemed galleries and museums, including Musée d’Art moderne de Paris, Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles Museum, The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and the Grand Rapids Art Museum to name a few. @gparisa

Elly Kalantari is a multi-disciplinary artist focusing on multi-dimensional perception, alternative narratives. In her practice she is deeply invested in understanding the different viewpoints on the concept of self, not just on an individual level, but also within group dynamics and broader cultural contexts. This involves delving into the diverse philosophical, psychological, and sociological perspectives that contribute to our understanding of the self, such as the idea of the self as a stable and unchanging entity versus the self as an ever-evolving and context-dependent construct. She has been recognized and celebrated with numerous awards, including the esteemed RTKL Fellowship UMBC in 2022 and the esteemed ACE International Photo Awards in 2020. @elii_iiham

Masoumeh Mohtadi is a transdisciplinary artist and educator with a focus on the interplay of linguistic expressions and visual language. Holding an MFA in painting from Alzahra University, she has garnered widespread recognition through numerous solo and group exhibitions. Notably, her works have been featured in events like the 7th Tehran National Sculpture Biennial at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the International Eco Art in Kunsthalle, Budapest, and the 2nd Damunfar Visual Arts Festival in 2008, Tehran. Since 2019 Mohtadi has been working on a series of artist's books. In this exploration, she aims to create chains of signifiers in the audience's mind, deliberately without relying on pre-agreed conventions. Her intent is to liberate the reader's imagination and encourage unbounded interpretations, where common understanding is not the primary goal. Instead, she seeks to foster connections that are uniquely personal and transformative to each individual engaging with her work. @s.m_mohtadi

Alieh Rezaei is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Jose and currently works as a Studio Artist Educator in San Jose Museum of Art. She received her MFA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her artistic practice focuses on the creative reuse of found and organic waste materials, which she sources from her surrounding environment. She explores the concepts of communal life, language, and labor through her experiences as a diaspora artist having lived in different cultures and being exposed to different ideologies. Alieh is constantly seeking ways to incorporate her diverse cultural background into her artistic practice to share these concepts in educating and inspiring others through her art. @aali_zaee

About the Curator

Ainaz Alipour is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist and Filmmaker studying Studio Art (MFA) at the University of South Florida who received a MA in Film from Ohio University. Her past and current projects have been mainly focused on her transnational identity, seeking to create a narrative that emphasizes the transformative state of being a diasporic body. Her works have earned her recognition and awards, and they have been showcased in esteemed international film festivals like AIFVF, SWIFF, and Lift Off Film Sessions. Since 2019, she has been residing and working in the United States. @ainaz_alipour