CLOSING EVENT / MEET THE ARTIST
SATURDAY 16 DECEMBER 2023
FROM 3 PM TO 5 PM
This artwork is a tribute to Bavan, a 7-year-old girl, the daughter of Fereshteh Ahmadi, a 32-year-old woman who was shot in the chest by security forces in the Kurdish city of Mahabad, located in the northwest of Iran, on October 27, 2022. The inspiration for this creation is drawn from the poignant image of Bavan shedding tears by her mother's graveside.
The hands depicted in this piece have been meticulously crafted using 3D printing, based on a 3D scan of the actual hands of a 7-year-old girl. This scan was obtained through the photogrammetry technique, capturing the same pose as Bavan's hands at her mother's graveside, and printed to replicate the size of a 7-year-old girl's hands.
This piece was developed during a research-creation residency in May 2023 at La Chambre Blanche in Quebec City.
Biography
Rojin Shafiei was born in Iran in 1993 and is currently based in Toronto. She is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker who describes her art as a vehicle for cultural translation of diverse feminine subjectivities.
She employs both documentary and more abstract video art for artistic expression. Rojin received her BFA in intermedia from Concordia University in 2017 and is currently an MFA candidate in film production at York University. Her work has screened in Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma in Canada, as well as internationally in Morocco, France and Iran. In 2019 she was the Venice Lands Art Prize candidate in Treviso, Italy and she won the grand prize of Startupfest/Artupfest section in July 2018 for her piece "I wait for the time."
Artist Statement
Working from an interdisciplinary approach to moving images in my works, art is a vehicle for the translation of cultural messages as an Iranian immigrant based in Canada and is used to present diverse feminine subjectivities. I present these themes both through a literal documentary style and as symbols in different mediums. I am particularly inspired by the observation of routines, on both individuals and cities. I work on projects that are both independent and collaborative, and my practice draws heavily on research and cultural exploration, looking at new ways of working with moving images, photography, performance, sound, text, and installation.
My practice is about my reactions to everyday life, social and political issues, and personal experiences as a woman who has lived in both the Middle East and North America.
I find my perspective frequently returning to the themes of displacement, time, feminism, violence, and human rights. I keep remembering my life and rights as a woman in Iran, try to picture it and compare it with my life as a woman and immigrant in Canada.
Focusing on moving images during the past five years has let me deepen my knowledge in image aesthetics and experimental imaging through the eyes of a non-narrative medium. I have been taking original footage inspired by visual citations and turning them into a conceptual form by adding an object, using a costume and a feminine figure. I am interested in creating the image and assembling it, compressing and expanding time, and overlapping space between still and moving images – where photography and video might meet.