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As a hobby, during my adolescent years, I pictured myself as “others”. Later on, as a photographer, this nation took on another format. That is, I placed myself as the “others” in the photographs. Five years ago, while I was in CHOGHAZANBIL TEMPLE, shooting self-portraits for a project, I began to study Hammurabi, King of Babel known to have written codes of Law, some 2500 years ago. A few were most interesting: Code 129: If a man’s wife was caught sleeping with another man, they were tied together and drowned. Code 133: If a man’s wife refused her husband, she was condemned and drowned. These photographs reminisce the nightmare of the era and I have tried to place myself as the women, the lover, the husband and the king Hammurabi who wrote and implemented the law. These photographic series were taken in Shoush, in the CHOGHAZANBIL TEMPLE, in southwest of Iran, next to Karoun River during March 2001 and was exhibited in full at Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran –Iran, November 2001.

Sword and Lo-ng (pronounced won’t) are among the most important icons of manhood in Iranian culture. It is a defensive weapon rather then an aggressive one and it is used to defend one’s dignity and country. In addition to covering a man’s body. Lo-ng is also a symbol of masculinity and humanity of real man. In ancient Islamic civilization Lo-ng was worn by warriors the fabric of which was made of gold and silk threads. In this collection I tried to convey the humanistic message embedded in these ancient symbols of manhood in my culture lest they are forgotten.

I can’t remember who said this. In a crowd you see a thousand faces. Behind each face there is a story. We all have our own stories, normally sad ones. We can tell, simply by looking at each other’s face, we can hear those stories. We communicate the secrets of our hearts and souls with the slightest hint. Our fleeting experiences have at least these in common: As and Bs and Cs.

According to a number of religious text: Abraham was about to sacrifice his son to convey his devotion to God. An angel offered a sheep as he placed the blade against Ismail’s throat. In the tragic story of Sohrab and Rustam from the Shahnameh, “Book of Kings” by Ferdowsi: Rustam realizes that he has killed his own son in battle, a son, he had never seen before the day of their encounter. Rustam holds his son, drenched in blood, empowered with raw emotions of love and loss. In the Shia sect, a branch of Islam, on the anniversary of Hussein’s (grandson of Prophet Mohammad) death and martyrdom, followers wound themselves with metal machetes, offering their blood in his honor and memory. The photographic series that I have named “Sacrifice” are my artistic interpretation of the emotional impact these stories have had on me since childhood.
Presentation:
SARIFICE is offered in two- format: Video and Photographs. The photographs are triptych image with a central image and two identical ones on each side; the video presentation follows the same rule and is projected by three monitors to reflect the images in motion.

When I was photographing Persepolis, lots of my self-portraits were in front of Cuneiform and that caused the thought of doing it in a studio this time only with the Cuneiform as the background. I like the style of the script and I use it in my works repeatedly. This collection was completed by Farsi handwriting as the background, afterwards.

With the Rise of the Achaemenid Dynasty the Persian civilization came into being. The glory and grandeur of any civilization is no doubt reflected in the monuments left behind by its builder. Darius I erected Persepolis in 5th century BC and his successors added to its splendor. For non- Iranian friends, Persepolis today stands as a symbol of Ancient Iran, so much so that “Iran- Persepolis” have come to be one and the same thing. It is perhaps because of this that for the past several years I have framed myself in the archways and against the engravings of Jamshid’s Throne – to better understand what it was that the monument exudes. With the current collection I have tried to introduce other people from different historical settings into the frame. I hope that I have done this in a way that wouldn’t require further explanation.

Within twenty years, the world’s population will reach 7 billion. Denser and younger in developing countries, population is the Achilles’ heel of these regimes, which considers this group’s increasing needs and demands as a problematic issue. In Multitude, I depict population as a serious issue facing Iran. Population is shaped by the gathering of individuals whose behavior varies according to their situations. People, regardless of their religious and ideological beliefs, search for an inner peace and therefore carry out liturgical actions. However, when together, these same people act out their aortic deeds devoid of all hidden values. The combination of photos and patterns in vast juxtapositions of people and motifs signify.

I always wanted to alter parts of my photographs to achieve more expressive and more abstract forms. I searched for this ideal through drawing on photographs before. This collection is an amalgamation of photography and drawing. Here I chose to draw directly on photographs in the darkroom to create more abstract forms. I took a number of photos, which were specifically designed to be changed by chemicals in the dark room. Hence, the name, Drawing In The Darkroom

The human body has been an inspiration for artist for centuries. When you study Persian art, pre and after Islam, figurative images have been represented in different formats, metal works, ceramics, miniature and oil paintings, although you rarely come across the naked body. While researching this project, I came across images from our ancient past, a rare ancient practice amongst the Secaha tribe and noble pre-Achaemenians Kings, who painted their bodies with abstract and figurative images (tattoo). I became fascinated with this imagery and it inspired me to continue and develop this photographic series. I have painted my body, the human canvas, with decorative wood blocks used in textile design to connect me to my very ancient past.

The project is an effort to unite the curvatures of Persian calligraphy with the curves of a human body. To achieve this, we have made use of the Mohr technique, which involves stamps that the Iranian- Islamic culture has variously employed to print on fabrics. Each work within this project is unique.

The carpet is emblematic of Persian culture: its symbolism, seasonality, richness, diversity, and continuity in time and in history. I have been obsessed by the parallelism and marriage between this symbolic, intricately- loomed object and the people to whom it belongs. In my project, I have emphasized the population issue as it is faced not only by Iran but also globally. I am also considering human- kind’s behavior in various situations. My goal is to demonstrate that all people, regardless of gender, culture, and religion, are indeed seeking inner peace and sanctity.

Chogha-Zanbil located near SUSA in the Khouzestan Province, south west of Iran. The Elamite ruler Untash-Gal chose this place as a center of pilgrimage in 1300 B.C.E. The city was surrounded by two walls. There are two five-floor ziggurats in the city, each 175 feet high. On the top of each ziggurat was a temple. Ashur –Banipal destroyed Chogha-Zanbil in 640 B.C.

Based on statistics, there are nine million youth and young adults between the ages of sixteen to twenty- four in Iran. This made me think: How can we protect them from the attack of some destructive cultures? Day by day, the budget spent on educational and cultural programs is decreasing while the numbers of meaningless and useless websites and Satellite TV shows are increasing.  This crisis is not limited to the younger generation in Iran.  This is a global crisis. Media is focusing on shows that have no actual value and are investing heavily in reality shows to keep viewers entertained. Large corporations are putting all their efforts toward commercialization and they encourage superficiality. Are we going to find a way to guide this young generation their true culture and identity?

Tehran, a city with ten million inhabitants, is my home and a constant preoccupation, like other big cities in the world, in this polluted and busy city human beings are lost & it seems that they have no control over their destinies. They build walls around themselves without being aware of them. One can see many people passing by these walls every minute. But I can see only walls with no human beings in front of them.

Reviewing Persian miniatures and studying pictorial carpets of recent years, one comes across a new aspect of Persian & Islamic Art, which has been talked about and interpreted in so many different ways. From my perspective, as an Iranian contemporary artist, these elements of art, which are timeless, have been reflected in my work and have also provided an inspiration. For many, the miniatures and carpets are decorative objects but in this new project of mine, I have tried to understand the beauty and secrets behind them.

Symbols in every culture have their own values and meanings but basic human instincts have common meanings for people all over the world. The Pomegranate is the most symbolic fruit in Middle East. From Love to the infinite world, you can find many meanings for it. I was always tempted to use pomegranates in one of my projects, and leave the audience to interpret it in their own way. I would like to dedicate this project to Sergei Parajanov, my favorite filmmaker who passed away in 1989.

For centuries, the Zoorkhaneh has been a great place for Iranian men who are interested in having their body and their minds built together. I tired to capture the fact that, these people, even after a few hundred years, kept the same environment and looks, but not the same spirit and attitude.

Reviewing Persian Miniatures and studying pictorial carpets of recent years, one comes across a new aspect of Persian and Islamic Art, which has been talked about and interpreted in so many different ways. From my perspective, as an Iranian contemporary artist, these elements of art, which are timeless, has been reflected in my work and has also provided an inspiration. For many, the miniatures and carpets are decorative objects but in this new project of mine. I have tried to understand the beauty and secrets behind them. have at least these in common: A's and B's and C's.

Darius the Great started building the Achaemenid capital Persepolis in 518 B.C.E. His son Xerxes continued building up the capital, as did Artaxerxes III. The Iranians celebrated Norouz, the Iranian New Year, in Persepolis where the king gave an audience to the higher classes & ambassadors. Persepolis was sacked and destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.E.