I am a Dutch-Iranian lifelike artist and sociologist (born: Netherlands, 1993). The term 'lifelike artist' comes courtesy of Allan Kaprow.
I do and do not make art. I make a performance today and pick an eyelash off someone's cheek tomorrow. Art is not something higher than everyday life, everyday life is more compelling than art. Life is meaningful, but only in particular: sweating, eating a pickle, making a sculpture. I like to make art, or not make art, that makes me attentive to the strangeness and excitement of the everyday. The strangeness of shaking hands, applauding, laughing, a glass of beer. I also think life is pointless. Art is not separate from life, but life is not art. Art is experience. An artist should not be celebrated more than a market seller. I like to do life consciously, while sometimes creating an installation, sometimes putting on a coat and some other times having a squeaky conversation. I want to play in the everyday. Playing life, not gaming, is my highest goal. Being commissioned to create an installation is the same as being commissioned to be a waitress.
When it seems right, I use my visual sociology training to combine social scientific research methods and theory with visual and sensory artistic practice. Studying sociology stimulated my interest in how the social reality of humans is constructed. I question the extent to which 'humans remain humans' within this social reality. My dual heritage allows me to compare two socialized cultures in this respect. These interests often resonate in the recurring themes of my work, thoughts, movements, and conversations; bare life, decay, somatics, and micro-politics.
Education
2018-2019
MA Visual Sociology, Goldsmiths University of London [distinction]
2016-2017
BSc Sociology, Utrecht University
2016-2017
Preparatory Course Fine Art, University of the Arts Utrecht
2016
Exchange semester, University of California, Santa Barbara
2013-2017
BA Liberal Arts and Sciences, Utrecht University
2012-2013
Minor Media and Culture, Utrecht University
Exhibitions / Performances
26.07.2019
18.05.2019
05.04.2019
01.05.2016
(group) SNACK - Sociology is Not a Complete Knowledge, Greenwich West Community & Art Centre
(group) Things to Do When You're Dead, Cambridge City Crematorium
(group) Residual Matters, Goldsmiths, University of London
(group) Residual Matters, Goldsmiths, University of London
(solo) Imprisoned, University of California, Santa Barbara
Commissions
2019
2019
2018
2017
2008-now
(set designer) VASSILINA, Albany Theatre, London
(performer) Sorry, What?, shown during Prelon Musk: Acts of Kleinness, at Asylum Chapel, Peckham, London, directed by Eilidh Delves
(voice-over artist) Under Construction, selected by BFI Top 200 Best Video Essays of 2018, directed by Julia Sterre Schmitz
(performer) Alles Over Iets en Dingen en Niets, shown at Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis (NL), directed by Diede Daalman
Many waitressing and office jobs
02.11.2019
(group) Museumnacht Amsterdam [museumnight], Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam
11.2019-12.2019
(group) Intervention for the occasion of De Laatste Aai, Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam