Overview
Nevermind, Azizam
September 9 - October 14, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 9, 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 30, 2pm
Transformer is proud to present Nevermind, Azizam, a mixed-media exhibition that delves visually and sensually into the uniqueness and range of Iranian-American experiences through the work of Ani Bradberry, Alexandra ‘Rex’ Delafkaran, and Sheida Soleimani.
Entering the room, indistinguishable combinations of saffron, Chanel No. 5 and black tea steep into the senses. Dole out the kisses to every cheek in the room. Catch the occasional salaam and khoshgel. Never quite understood or understanding, never quite the same, the ethnic friend, the American grandchild.
We are our own Others. We are troubled by the simultaneously intimate and unfamiliar facets of our family histories. This identity is defined by its fluctuation and intensely unique individual experience.
We are inexplicably in love with traditions that lie under lenses of our families and our countries. Both of our motherlands float at odds with one another, separated by an ocean of fear and mistrust. Within this tension, we are both horrified and strengthened by the myths. Exotification and fetishization have shaped our lives, and the myths become as vivid and slippery as the goldfish on nowruz. Our adolescence is embedded in the joy and anxiety of language. Rich with symbols, smells, textures and tastes, our shared experiences are pure poetry. We all know the sensations of gracious apologies and tart affection.
- Text by Ani Bradberry & Rex Delafkaran
Artist Bios
Anahita (Ani) Bradberry is an artist and art historian based in DC and Brooklyn. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in modern and contemporary non-Western art with a focus on Japan from American University's feminist art history program. Interested in challenging predetermined power structures in the global contemporary art world, Anahita walks the line between artist and critical art writer to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural power of radical creativity.
Rex (Alexandra) Delafkaran is an interdisciplinary artist and dancer currently based in Washington, DC. She uses movement and objects to explore the rich tensions between intimacy, language and identities. Upon receiving her degree in Ceramics and Performance Art from the San Francisco Art Institute, she has now worked and exhibited in Southern Exposure Gallery, Diego Rivera Gallery, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Panoply Performance Lab, and others. Rex continues to perform, write and exhibit, making sculpture out of Red Dirt Studios.
Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist who lives in Providence, RI. The daughter of political refugees who were persecuted by the Iranian government in the early 1980s, Soleimani makes work that melds sculpture, collage and photography and highlights her own critical perspective on historical and contemporary socio-political occurrences in Iran. She focuses on media trends and the dissemination of societal occurrences in the news, adapting images from popular press and social media leaks to exist within alternate scenarios. Her work has been recognized internationally in both exhibitions and publications such as Artforum, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Interview, and VICE Magazine. Soleimani’s research and work critically references the Eurocentrism that pervades the study of art and art history. She is specifically interested in the intersections of art and activism, as well as how social media has shaped the landscape in current socio-political affairs and uprisings.
EXHIBITION HOURS: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 -6 and by appointment.
Image credit: Ani Bradberry, Nevermind, Azizam, 2017
