Artist Statement

The subject matter in my paintings mostly deals with power structures and power struggles in intentionally nondescript situations. I challenge the inherent limitations of the multilayered content of my works by crossing cultural and sociopolitical boundaries. Each painting acts as a singular critique of society in general without being specifically political.

My paintings present theatrical stages with scenes played out in which costumed characters, animals and props engage in an ongoing dialogue. Animals appear throughout the works as both gestural metaphors and/or ambiguous aggressors or victims. I use them in a mythological sense as representations of the emotions that are associated with cruelty, innocence and at times despotism. Referring to animals helps me to maintain the unity of thinking and feeling. They collectively, with the other props, add to the spiritual and psychological dimension of my paintings.

Throughout my work, uniforms of Western business suits and Iranian clerical garments portray the authority of a male-dominated world. The discourse of these elements integrates humor that operates to humiliate political leaders and their violence, while pointing out immanent weaknesses of the human condition. I employ lines of divisions in my compositions as well as visible cuts across the figures and their surrounding environments to reflect not only oppression, but a sense of dislocation. Furthermore, I reference eroticism to investigate the prevailing hypocrisy and duplicity in patriarchal societies, especially those of the Middle East.

In the process, this simultaneously seductive and subversive visual vocabulary works to create a cohesive and dramatic narrative. These representations, set against a continuous backdrop of ambiguity, allegory and irony, suggest an extremely delicate balance between the personal and the universal.