shirin bolourchi

Being sentence to 16 Years of prison might seem like a sentence in this class, 16 years of prison is a deadly punishment is a brutal gift coming to an artist from a repressive religious regime is uncivilized, barbarian, 16 years of punishment is a terrifying nightmare not knowing why you are locked up, 16 years of prison only because you are defending basic human rights, 16 years of prison only for what you are drawing and writing perceived as threat to the system. Being held in solitary confinement with no formal charges brought against you, all you know is all your professors are in prison for being a prominent intellectual figure.

Human rights is a universal standard. It is a component of every religion and every civilization. When a person is humiliated, when his rights are being violated, and he does not have the proper education, naturally he gravitates toward terrorism.  “Shirin Ebadi”

Each time I fall in love I think of Jacques Lacan and his famous sentence “What does it matter how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe? “Lacan”

Then I instantly remind myself that I’m entering in to my darkness and there is nothing to do with my lovers but for the sun is setting and Culver City is getting dark. I learned the sun set in southern California is my crucial enemy. I still remember when I moved to California I was crying by each sunset, funny ha?!. Every time I think deeply and each time I’m honest with myself I found that I’ve devoted lifetime making you satisfied for I always give you more than what I get. That Tuesday I texted you to come and change the wall and the line that you have used for your installation, I argued along the negative space and some curatorial decision making. You said that you knew this all and you take responsibility for the way you decided to install all the images. I insisted that you still should come and reconsider the wall that you have chosen, Suddenly you said you are feeling turned on by those lines, those texts. You said you are not able concentrating on the images for I killed all the aesthetics in your mind. I said I’m not scared, as I know the pleasure of the text.

I thought I moved on, you are still writing to me I was also thinking if there might

Be a way that we could at least talk to each other as two civilized human beings at least for the language we still share.

After Jacques Lacan I sent you a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, I’ve used this poem in-between of the video art I made at the time I was living in Toronto. I still go back to Eglinton sometimes, below my image I wrote for you; to you “ Civilized

Society’s animal.” Then I typed the poem;

 

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

So many things seem filled with the intent

To be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster 


Of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. 


The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

Places, and names, and where it was you meant

To travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

Next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

Some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

The art of losing’s not too hard to master

Though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

 

” ELIZABETH BISHOP” The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

 

 

Soon after we got separated I left Tehran. I don’t see Touraj any longer

I don’t know if you are still talking to him. I’ve never missed anyone in my life

The way I miss talking to Touraj, you asked me several times; “ So have you

Been with Touraj, that’s why you love him?”. I always had the same answer for

You; “I’ve never been with Touraj but I’m so influenced by him.”

I thought I was so influenced by him. You were so jealous about it. In retrospect

I feel I love him and also I’m so influenced by him.

All these days I was transforming to my new identity. I celebrated our separation

Several times. By now “I should confess I could be a plain mirror in there to observe self-adornment before entering.”

How I feel tonight I’ve finally started writing my thesis with you with Touraj

With my new Political Iranian American Canadian Russian identity with the sound of Philip Glass. Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis to catharsis was curated in 2015 for the first time in Los Angeles By Shirin Bolourchi at Otis College of art and Design. For Shirin Metamorphosis to Catharsis is a center of identical and cultural change related to Iranian identity in Los Angeles. In my eyes modern society and technology defines us as individuals. We can all perceive the same concept at the same time, yet our interpretation and experience of the identity; time and space will be unique for each individual. Since we all bring our own life’s experiences to how we see a shared reality, then for me as an Iranian visual artist the question of what is identity is at the stake. Is ones identity of our own making, or do things such as media and propaganda, Time and space, society whom you socialize with, frustration and repression coming from a repressive regime like where I grew up then manufactures my identity? Is identity simply a simulation? A concept? does identity even exist? The artists in Metamorphosis to Catharsis desire to explore this concept. Each has their own vision, their own visual vocabulary to how they perceive their identical world. We have gathered together representing our honest identity in form of art. Metamorphosis to catharsis is a symbol of our dialectic. We hope for annulment of fraudulent reform in the name of fine art. Our identity has no specific image in here. We the members of the Metamorphosis to catharsis have one duty: creating a new rhythm for the benefit of our honesty. We believe in the present. What we are exhibiting here is a dance on our surfaces. We create unity within our pieces; we are criticizing the aesthetic of

Repression and isolation the frustration of repressive regimes only those who do the same shall come with us. So far Metamorphosis to catharsis had three openings and two weeks show in Otis College of Art and Design since 2015. Our group had a significant line of attention from the curators and critics in Los Angeles and as a curator I am hoping to travel through time and space with my spectacular group of visual artists.

“I don’t want to be labeled as anything I’d like to be able to express my ideas my feelings about the society that I live in. I don’t like anybody to tell me what to do, what not to do. The government of Iran doesn’t like my painting; the previous government also didn’t like my painting. I’ve been in trouble with the previous government and I’m in trouble with the Islamic Republic of Iran too, And it’s only because of the paintings. I’m not even an activist.”