Assignments includes various works by interdisciplinary artist Sona Safaei-Sooreh that explore the sites of communication, and more importantly, miscommunication embedded in contemporary art practices.
“In the past few years my work and process have explored the notion of self and otherness and part/whole relationships in a decentralized global situation. In doing so it has elaborated on number of concerns: differences among languages and cultures; how meanings and cultural codes get lost in translations; the possibility of communication across cultures; issues around diversity; globalization and homogenization; the effects of creating a common knowledge- specifically a common art discourse; and more recently, the relationships between art and economy.
After I moved from Iran to Canada I attended OCADU and challenged my Iranian post-secondary schooling experience. I delved into Canadian Contemporary Art and culture to adapt myself to this new territory, starting with changing my medium of practice from painting to video. I became interested in understanding agencies inherited in this new structure: interests/desires of the new domain, new laws and regulations, and the most wanted and marketable ideas, perhaps to develop a common knowledge with my surroundings. I have noticed that I continue to compare two states of being: when one thing belongs to two things and none of them at the same time. The plurality of selves I experience in my personal life encompasses most of the questions I raise about the art world. Some of these questions are: how one experiences otherness in the art world? What is the individual’s relationship to the institution? Is it necessary to develop a common knowledge with the state apparatus? Does not pursuing a common knowledge favor controlling systems? What happens if one cannot find anything in common with the dominant discourse?”
-Sona Safaei-Sooreh
Artist Bio:
Sona Safaei-Sooreh studied art at Azad University of Tehran and graduated in July 2006 with a BFA in Painting. She moved to Canada after finishing her studies in Iran and she is a recent graduate from OCAD University in Toronto.
Safaei Sooreh has exhibited her works extensively both in Iran and internationally, to name a few Limited Access in Tehran at Mohsen Gallery, Iran & co at La Bourgoaise in Belgium, If we ever meet again … at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York and In Other Word at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin. Her work and process explores the notion of self and otherness, the linkages between one and many, and part /whole relationships in a decentralized global situation. In doing so it elaborates on number of concerns: differences among languages and cultures; lost meanings or components in translations; possibility of communications cross cultures; and artist/museum relationships. Safaei Sooreh lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Safaei Sooreh has exhibited her works extensively both in Iran and internationally, to name a few Limited Access in Tehran at Mohsen Gallery, Iran & co at La Bourgoaise in Belgium, If we ever meet again … at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York and In Other Word at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin. Her work and process explores the notion of self and otherness, the linkages between one and many, and part /whole relationships in a decentralized global situation. In doing so it elaborates on number of concerns: differences among languages and cultures; lost meanings or components in translations; possibility of communications cross cultures; and artist/museum relationships. Safaei Sooreh lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
