AFARIN RAHMANIFAR

Women of Shahnameh: Azarmidokht and Porandokht, 2021
Mixed media on wood panel
4' x 6'

Women of Shahnameh: Bijan and Manijeh, 2021
mixed media on wood panel
4' x 6'

Women of Shahnameh: Bijan and Manijeh (Detail), 2021
mixed media on wood panel
4' x 6'

As part of my mixed media painting and installation work, I am concerned with the absence of women’s voice and hope to evaluate such diverse issues as subjectivity, knowledge, power, sexuality, memory, and collective cultural identity. I depict women as protagonist characters in both Eastern and Western societies. My work primarily is bound by my experience of living in exile from Tehran, the city where I grew up, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

My philosophical and theoretical framework has been consistent throughout the past decades. The turning point for this exhibition was to change the tactile quality of the surface and material for "Women of Shahnameh" Series ( Bijan & Manijeh), (Azarmidokht & Porandokht).