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A Conversation with Artist Shirin Ettehadieh
Jul
Honar Online recently had a conversation with artist Shirin Ettehadieh regarding her current exhibition Face & Hands at Azad Gallery in Tehran said: “For many years, the subject of my work has been Woman and her hands, and one can always find a trace of women in my work. For this reason, last year I curated an exhibition of works by women artists of different mediums, such as photography, ceramics, and so on… which was highly welcome by the public. In this regard, and to continue with this show, I decided to exhibit my works individually – focusing on the faces and hands of women.
Ettehadieh pointed out that for humans, the hands and face are essential for expressing one’s emotions: “That is how one would be able to interpret someone’s state of mind. Also, I was subconsciously pulled towards this direction – in the previous series, entitled Black Singers, hands were part of the works and an element of the existence of my working subjects. Faces and hands were also elements of the Iranian Tribal Women series, which subconsciously appeared in my works. In my previous exhibitions, some viewers found hands to be a source of inspiration for creating their own pieces and caused them to continue working on it. In this current series, Faces & Hands, I chose to work on the hands and faces of women and created nine large dimension pieces for exhibition.”
In response to a question about why she has chosen women as her main subject, Ettehadieh said: “In my opinion, on whatever path one walks, one must work professionally. Everything cannot work together at once. One must focus on a single element. On the topic of women – I always try to work on a subject that allows me to grasp the depths of that subject and I hope I have been able to do that professionally. The theme of Women will always afford me the opportunity to work more professionally and make me see with more depth.”
