Farkhondeh Shahroudi
a collaboration with LOTTOZERO
text by Farkhondeh Shahroudi, Alessandra Tempesti (LOTTOZERO), Angelika Stepken (Villa Romana)
excerpt from ANNOTATED GLOSSARY, by Farkhondeh Shahroudi and Alessandra Tempesti
ONOMATOPOEIA: The imitation, using vocal and written language, of non-verbal sounds such as noises, animal sounds, exclamations and so forth. Onomatopoeia creates new words by imitating the sound of the referent animate or inanimate object: these are transparent words where the connection between meaning and sound becomes explicit.
Poetry is one of the many sources of Farkhondeh Shahroudi’s artistic research. Poetic language is transformed into plastic matter, such as the sculptures made from hand-stitched fabrics. The three-dimensional exclamations (these too padded and stitched) become sculptures to all effects and purposes. They are phonemes of astonishment alluding to the degree zero of poetry (and sculpture) where it is the sense of wonder that reveals the creative process of the imagination, overturning accepted contents and symbolism. The artist simply continues to reinvent her language, or rather the language in which she practices poetry: Farsi and German.” (on the occasion of the exhibition Spatial Poetry, Lottozero Textile Laboratories, Prato, 2017). Learn more here
excerpt from a conversation between Farkhondeh Shahroudi and Angelika Stepken, director at Villa Romana (Florence)
AS: <<When one looks at your sculptures, one is initially captivated by the figure - a human, a bird or a slingshot. But it seems to me as if the level of speech - and the absence of speech - is equally important in your work: very obviously in the case of the bird made from carpet cut-offs, which has no beak, but also in many other works, and of course in your books. Your work speaks of a great pain.>>
FS: <<I find that the absence of speech in my work is itself a language. I address it and turn it into a visual language. I am always concerned with communication, with finding a way to bring dead alphabetic characters back to life so that there is a connection to the other.>> . Read more here
a collaboration with LOTTOZERO
text by Farkhondeh Shahroudi, Alessandra Tempesti (LOTTOZERO), Angelika Stepken (Villa Romana)
excerpt from ANNOTATED GLOSSARY, by Farkhondeh Shahroudi and Alessandra Tempesti
ONOMATOPOEIA: The imitation, using vocal and written language, of non-verbal sounds such as noises, animal sounds, exclamations and so forth. Onomatopoeia creates new words by imitating the sound of the referent animate or inanimate object: these are transparent words where the connection between meaning and sound becomes explicit.
Poetry is one of the many sources of Farkhondeh Shahroudi’s artistic research. Poetic language is transformed into plastic matter, such as the sculptures made from hand-stitched fabrics. The three-dimensional exclamations (these too padded and stitched) become sculptures to all effects and purposes. They are phonemes of astonishment alluding to the degree zero of poetry (and sculpture) where it is the sense of wonder that reveals the creative process of the imagination, overturning accepted contents and symbolism. The artist simply continues to reinvent her language, or rather the language in which she practices poetry: Farsi and German.” (on the occasion of the exhibition Spatial Poetry, Lottozero Textile Laboratories, Prato, 2017). Learn more here
excerpt from a conversation between Farkhondeh Shahroudi and Angelika Stepken, director at Villa Romana (Florence)
AS: <<When one looks at your sculptures, one is initially captivated by the figure - a human, a bird or a slingshot. But it seems to me as if the level of speech - and the absence of speech - is equally important in your work: very obviously in the case of the bird made from carpet cut-offs, which has no beak, but also in many other works, and of course in your books. Your work speaks of a great pain.>>
FS: <<I find that the absence of speech in my work is itself a language. I address it and turn it into a visual language. I am always concerned with communication, with finding a way to bring dead alphabetic characters back to life so that there is a connection to the other.>> . Read more here
SELECTED ARTWORKS
︎︎︎Instant Message (2009)
︎︎︎Mime / Epitone Present (2005/2006)
︎︎︎Smashless (2005/2006)
︎︎︎Hyper Tongueless Language Soundless Dumbly Deaf (2003/2004)
︎︎︎Wooded Hand (2003/2004)
︎︎︎Untitled (2003)
︎︎︎Guards (2001/2005)
︎︎︎Sister of the Garden (2000/2005) and KH Phomen Sound (2010)
/“Instant Message”, 2009
paint and needlework on cloths
<<Cloths, loud speakers, voices wandering into the room, with an echo.>>
/“Mime”, 2005-2006
woolen hat, carpet, needlework
<<Pantomime. Forked tongue. Facial language. I gave the faces expressions in which mouth and eyes play the main role, I sewed carpet pieces as open mouths and eyes or alternately sewn as shut. With the carpet pieces moving on the living face they have something to tell us.>>
/“Smashless”, 2005-2006
needlework on boxing gloves
<<I changed the boxing gloves’ function from punching tools to greenhouse areas. The boxer is now a flower salesman, a poet.>>
/“Hyper Tongueless Language Soundless Dumbly Deaf”, 2003/2004
gloves, paint and needlework
<<The language of gestures.>>
/“Wooded Hand”, 2003/2004
gloves, paint and needlework
<<I gave women’s gloves a fictional sign language by sewing them together and by playing with them, like in a game of shadows, I enabled them to communicate by free improvisation. It is a broken language without tongues.
I write more and more layers of words, overlapping one to each other in a language that communicates on three levels:
-first level: talking through the signs of the hand;
-second level: illegible scripts on the gloves;
-third level: the language itself generated in the migration space.
The artwork is a stranger language, constantly changing.>>
/untitled, 2003
needlework on wooden hat
/“Guards”, 2001-2005
needlework on military camouflage fabric
<<Guards are power addicts. Disabled in their movements, these guards become ungainly, victims of their own dependence on power.>>
/“sisters of the garden”, 2000-2005
“KH phomen sound, 2010 (from the same series)
paint and needlework on fabrics
<<Dresses with only one opening, drawn sewn from the fabric – puzzling clothes – the dresses have only one opening for getting dressed – the viewer of the clothes asks: how shall I put on these dresses? And when he/she is wearing them, he/she asks: how can I take them off?
All the openings for the arms and neck are sewn up – who was the inhabitant of these dresses?
Something illegibly written by me can be seen on them.
Something illegibly written by me can be seen on them.
