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artist's statement ::
about the artist |
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Artist's Statement
Examining the components of the whole in isolation has
dominated western thought for centuries and from this
viewpoint, classifications and categorizations have
manufactured stereotypes. In this way of perceiving, not
knowing is an inadequacy that must be conquered and,
therefore, where real knowledge does not exist; a
substitute can be imagined.
Dressing the Part is a response to the stereotypes
that pervade the representation of women from Muslim
countries. Such misrepresentation may be historic, like
the accounts of the western travelers of harem wives as
exotic seductresses-articulated in the fragmented and
sensualized body parts in Exotic and Alien-or
contemporary, like the assumptions that eastern women are
the oppressed victims of backward societies- implied in
the ambiguous pose of pain or pleasure in Fit.
Gotcha plays a game of linguistics and cultural
perceptions. The taxidermy style woman's hand frozen with
its thumb up signal, is interpreted as "good job" in
America while in reality, it is "flipping the bird" in
Farsi.
Perhaps the most edgy is Virgin. A seemingly
deviant representation of a young girl's vagina, Virgin is
a deliberately inaccurate and made-up image that
challenges the viewers comfort zones both with its
portrayal, and the loaded associations with its title.
Finally, with the title of Dressing the Part, I
humor the stance of those who fall for, believe in or hope
to gain by playing into the mythology of the exotic. |
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About the Artist
Haleh Niazmand's art has been exhibited nationally and
internationally in many galleries and museums including,
the San Diego Museum of Art, the Cedar Rapids Museum of
Art, University of Arizona Art Museum, the Des Moines Art
Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art at Bucharest,
Romania, Bergen Electronic Art Center, Norway, A Space
Gallery in Toronto, and Macy Gallery of Columbia
University. Additionally, her work has been discussed in a
number of scholarly essays, journals and professional
magazines including Middle East Women Studies Review,
Radical History Review, Artweek, Mix
Magazine of Canada and Neural Magazine of
Italy. Between 1996 to 2000 Haleh Niazmand designed and
organized several collaborative projects with
under-represented community groups in California as well
as in Iowa during her residency at the Des Moines Art
Center from 1998-2000.
Her participatory project The Survey of Common Sense is
included in Rhizome's Art base, Vigil of Planetary Net Art,
and RealPlay, a Net Art curatorial selection by Gita Hashemi
which is currently traveling internationally within the
larger project, Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting.
Niazmand is the founder and director of Gallery
Subversive; a non-profit exhibition space devoted to high
quality dissent art. She Holds an MFA from the University
of Arizona in Tucson.
For more information, please visit
surveyofcommonsense.net
and
gallerysubversive.org.
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