Conversation with Farina Salehi
Q: First tell me a little about your background and where you studied.
Salehi: I was born and raised in Kerman where I lived until I was eighteen then I was accepted at the Soureh University of Shiraz and left. The following five years were spent in Shiraz. Once I graduated I moved to Tehran and began my work. By the end of my first year in Tehran I had joined the Iranian Artists Association, had held several solo and group exhibitions and had participated in the university entrance examination for the master's degree. I was accepted.
Q: How did your family react to your decision to become a painter?
Salehi: Like most Iranian families although they're very much interested in history and literature they didn't take art seriously so they opposed me initially but when they realized I had made up my mind they went along with me. The only reason they objected to art in the first place was that they didn't see any future in it.
Q: How would you describe the artistic milieu of Shiraz and its influence on you?
Salehi: Well, it's a lot better than that of Kerman. In Shiraz one cannot help but be influenced by the history and tradition of the area. I think that is what penetrated my work and left its mark. The old bazaars, citadel and the life of the tribes around Shiraz have all wound their way into my mind and left indelible impressions which can easily be recognized in my work. I think it was absolutely necessary for me to have spent those five years in Shiraz. Had I come to Tehran from the beginning I believe my work would be very different today. Shiraz helped me know myself, my background and my art.
Q: You've used a lot of the traditional Iranian 'gilim' and 'gabeh' designs in your paintings why do you use these designs?
Salehi: Iran has a history of several thousand years. Throughout these years she has been invaded by various cultures and powers and each time she has risen to greater heights once her oppressors have been destroyed which is why she is often compared to our mythical bird the 'simorgh' that rises out of her own ashes.
In spite of the fact that she is a country that has been invaded and suppressed throughout her two thousand five hundred years of history Iran has kept her identity and civilization through her art. To me one of the greatest symbols of this constancy are the designs that are ever present and ever constant in both Iranian carpets, 'gilims', 'gabehs', miniatures and contemporary art.
Q: Iranian art seems to have a certain constancy of color. You have used these colors in your paintings. Can you explain why?
Salehi: I love color. In our final semester at university we had to choose a topic, research it and then defend it before a panel of judges. I chose color. I called this project 'Color and Life'. I was trying to compare the artificial colors used today with the traditional colors artists used in the past. To me this is a reflection of the direction life in the modern world is taking: a world in love with artificiality.
In my years in Shiraz I worked on natural colors made from plants. My alizarin reds and lapis blues, so replete in Persian handicraft, are natural colors. I found that although they're hardly ever used any more these colors are much better than the artificial chemical substances we use today. Natural colors neither run into each other nor do they fade through exposure to sunlight.
When I was in Shiraz I went to a natural dye producing workshop. There I learnt to dye wool with very natural and primitive substances like walnut skin, lapis lazuli, pomegranate and other natural plants and fruit. This is how carpet wool is still dyed in many parts of Iran today. I love these colors and I tried to keep them in my work.
Q: Is there a narrative in the Persian gilim and gabeh?
Salehi: To me the tribal Iranian uses color to unite nature and the environment around him. It is not only the colors of his landscapes that bring a certain stability to his ever unstable and wandering life but forms too.
Most of the tribes are illiterate or at least have been illiterate until very recently. Yet they have felt the need to assert their existence in nature and to join it in spite of all the cruelties it inflicts on them. They join by expressing the shapes and forms that exist around them as they migrate with the seasons. Hence the forms are simple depictions of natural elements and yet they have a certain narration to them. It is precisely this narrative mode that they have used to recount their history. They used a specific symbolism to praise their God and existence. Hence each gilim and every single gabbeh is the weaver's interpretation of her daily life. The collection of these weaves makes volumes of history about the thought and beliefs of these tribes. Each one of its chapters speaks of the truths of their experiences.
Q: Have you ever used these substances in your works?
Salehi: I died some wool with these dyes and even today I sometimes use this wool as collages in my work.
Q: So you've never actually used the paints in your paintings?
Salehi: No, but sometimes it takes me up to twenty minutes to come up with that alizarin red we use in Iranian carpets. This might seem easy but actually it's very difficult to do because our alizarin red is natural and it's not such an easy color to make using chemical substances.
I think these natural colors have the quality of bringing peace and tranquility to the viewer because they rise out of the heart of nature. We also come from nature but we have distanced ourselves from it. So when something calls us back to it, it automatically brings a certain sense of tranquility.
Q: Are you trying to make a statement?
Salehi: In a way yes. I have always been proud of my heritage. I want the world to pay attention to Iran and see the cultural wealth we have. I'm not making any kind of a political statement here. I'm simply an Iranian proud of my culture and I want to show this culture to others. I find Iranian art to be brilliant in spite of the place it's been relegated to today and I am proud of that art. We often see it bypassed and works of much lesser quality embraced for reasons that have nothing to do with art but to me both historically and today it still surpasses the art of many parts of the world.
Q: Can you give an example?
Salehi: In terms of traditional artwork take a look at Iranian architecture and miniatures. Few countries can boast such wealth in their history. Look at places like Isfahan. In terms of contemporary art I think the place of Iran in modern cinema speaks for itself.