Reimagining My City: Mixed Media
Artist Statement
The discomfort of being a person living and working in the US is a place that, I think these paintings were being made from. Painting about things that I don’t have the proper language for. In this series, I work in layers to emphasize on the sense of space and movement in-between. I choose part of my city, a building or a corner of a street that I like to take a walk in, and I begin reimagining my city all over again in to my canvas.
Diaspora is a piercing theme which is also my own story. It is a challenge when you recall the residue of collective human suffering in excess of one’s own. You realize that the aftermath of international power struggles is coming to your breakfast table. I am but a small, living part of the collective body of trauma.
My recent paintings address displacement by delving into the various emotional and historical layers of public space and memory and reimagining them back. The way social and political changes transform civic spaces is of a particular interest to me. I use architectural elements as an entry point. Rebuilding the space by recalling vocabulary of the images I have collected and carry within myself. I don’t mind if the result grows distant from the reality. I celebrate the birth of a fresh space in my paintings that comes from the interference of the world I live in now and my disrupted memory of the past. I believe that architecture is the self-portrait of our generation.
Farima Fooladi was born in Tehran, Iran. She is currently living in the United States creating paintings in her studio in Houston, Texas. She is an artist in residence at the Box13 ArtSpace. She completed her MFA in painting and drawing at the Penn State University, College of Art and Architecture. Her work includes commentary on imagery, themes, symbols, and stories from Iranian visual and literature. Her recent research topic has been collective trauma and its long effect on cultures. She is fascinated by the lasting impact of collective trauma caused by invasion, migration, and displacement. In her recent paintings Reimagining My City, she is addressing displacement, delving into different historical and emotional layers of public spaces and memory. Transformation of civic spaces caused by social and political changes is of a particular interest to her.
