Artist Statement
mehmooni bazi: The Anatomy of Ecstasy
adrienne maree brown, in Pleasure Activism, asks from whom you learned about pleasure. I think of the shrill laughter of khalehs and amehs1, the homoeroticism of dancing amoos2, the children running under one’s feet to get the best tahdig3 once dinner is finally served.
The mehmooni4 is a space of collective joy and ecstasy for my community in the diaspora. Like many spaces of collective pleasure, a wave of group energy dissolves the individual into the whole as a moment of unity overtakes the crowd. The mehmooni is a space in which to lose yourself during the most intense moments of ecstasy: the first spoonful of ghorme sabzi, the juiciest new gossip or political news, the song to which your body feels best moving, and the words of a poem permitting you the emotional space to yearn for home publicly. In exploring the collective rituals of eating, dancing, conversation, and singing, I want to bring the joy and ecstasy of my community to the foreground. This serves as a reminder of the ways that we have continued to seek joy away from home and to highlight the collective effervescence that takes place.
Using collaging techniques, I am invoking the same cluttered joy that takes place in the mehmooni. In fact, when put together, the compositions make a tile pattern that a viewer can get lost in; their eyes moving through the images guided by the pops of green that draws them to events throughout each canvas. This effect is meant to imitate the experience of joy when roaming throughout the mehmooni and, indeed, any social gathering.
Titles
1 Conversation piece: Jeddi?! (Really!?)
2 Dinner piece: Noushe Jaan (May it nourish your soul)
3 Dance piece: Qer Bede! (Shake that a**!)
4 Song piece: Navaii, Navaii (Melody, melody)