We were lucky to catch up with Foroozan Shirghani recently and have shared our conversation below.
Foroozan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I warmly embrace the artistic journey I’ve undertaken during my path. I believe that each moment in life has its value and lessons. However, I wish I hadn’t let perfectionism hinder me from sharing my work at the younger age and I had permitted my career to organically unfold.
Foroozan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a multidisciplinary artist born in Iran. My work stems from my personal experiences and focuses on psychological and socio-political issues, especially identity boundaries. I explore universal themes of displacement, alienation, fragility, vulnerability, loss, suffering, and pressure exerted on the human body by these forces. I address these life-altering situations with fragmenting, deforming, and often destruction of my subjects and mediums. This figuration is a metaphor for psychological traumas and social pressures. Alienation is usually one of the inevitable consequences of these pressures, which leads to distortion and deformation of human personality and life.
I strive to utilize all these pains as a process to create art, expressing vulnerability and empathy. By establishing a poetic and apocalyptic space, I aim to evoke thoughts and convey the experiences and emotions of individuals who have become victims of political decisions and dysfunctional social structures.
I received my BFA from Tehran Azad Art University in 2004 and my MFA from Alzahra University in 2008. I served as a lecturer and art instructor at Shahre Rey Azad University and Shariati University in Tehran between 2008 to 2015. I moved to the US in 2015 and since then I have been living and working in Los Angeles. My works are across mediums, including painting, drawing, ceramic sculptures, abstract video, and textiles.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goals and motivations are usually defined by the questions and concerns raised along the way, so getting engaged in ideas and experimenting with form and medium is more important to me than the goals themselves.
This interest in experience-based projects and curiosity about art’s role in today’s social dynamics, has attracted my attention to the notion of social engagement and the ways it takes place in art. I tend to make my sculptures on a large scale and install them in certain places to increase their potential to engage with their audience as well as their surroundings. This engagement could happen on various levels such as formal, spatial, and material.
For example, in my latest project, I have been inspired by compressed plastic bottles as a metaphor for the alienation of the human body as a result of psychological traumas and social pressures. In this series, the malleable form and material of my figurative sculptures allow me to rearrange them in various ways; I can push, roll, or rotate them to create different setups. Moreover, envisioning these sizable, lightweight sculptures near distinct landmarks or urban buildings, sparking curiosity for people to interact and play with, truly fascinates me.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being an artist or creative is immensely rewarding for me. Life often presents challenges, especially when you’re raised in regions where socio-political and cultural-religious factors shape human rights and relationships. Through art, I discover a means to transcend these limitations, gaining insight into and experiencing life beyond societal norms. It enables me to appreciate diverse cultures and break free from commonplace values and constraints that aim to homogenize and subdue us. This freedom of expression and exploration is the most valuable aspect of my creative journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.foroozanshirghani.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foroozan_shirghani/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foroozan.shirghani
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/foroozan-shirghani-b5150669
Image Credits
Reza Khodayar