{"id":27101,"date":"2023-06-27T11:32:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T18:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=27101"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:16:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T19:16:51","slug":"taravat-talepasand-will-not-be-silenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/06\/27\/taravat-talepasand-will-not-be-silenced\/","title":{"rendered":"Taravat Talepasand will not be silenced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Detail of Taravat Talepasand, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” (2022). Neon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She’s made it through censorship and the Trump administration\u2014and the Iranian American artist is still telling her truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By EMILY WILSON<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JUNE 24, 2023 (48Hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taravat Talepasand\u2019s first name means the smell when the first spring rain lands on flowers. Fittingly, the artist tries to bring a certain freshness to thinking about what it means to be an Iranian woman in America. Her current show \u201c\u0637\u0631\u0627\u0648\u062a | TARAVAT\u201d (which runs through<\/a> July 23 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts), weaves together cultural identity, childhood, and the adult quest to make sense of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the outer areas of the YBCA gallery, 10-year-old Talepasand performs Persian dance, captured in several recordings of public access television shows. A neon sign reads \u201cWomen Life Freedom\u201d in Farsi and English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a very important protest slogan that started late in 2022 and is continuing today,\u201d Talepasand told 48hills. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the freedom for women, it\u2019s also for LGBTQ + communities in Iran. It\u2019s really a fight against the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBlasphemy IX\u201d (2016). Graphite on paper<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venturing further into the gallery, visitors take in scenes from her quest to process the Iranian-American double identity. On a recent visit to the show, Talepasand stands in front of \u201cBlasphemy IX,<\/em>\u201d a drawing that drew protest from some Muslim students at Macalester College in Minneapolis. They started a petition to have the work removed, and some of her pieces were temporarily covered with a black curtain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese drawings here that were censored at Macalester College have a woman in burqa showing her lingerie underneath,\u201d Talepasand said. \u201cThis is actually based on an Iranian writer, Roxana Shirazi, who wrote her memoir, The Last Living Slut<\/em><\/a>, basically exposing her journey and her trauma of sexual assault in Iran in a Muslim household.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taravat, who grew up in Portland, Oregon and attended the Rhode Island School of Design and San Francisco Art Institute, says she understands how some of the students in Minnesota got upset. But her intent was to connect, not shock, she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have feelings and a right to feel those feelings,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think that if you really dive into the many layers and the narratives and further context about the work, you\u2019ll know that I\u2019m not just making this up willy-nilly\u2014this really is deep research, and me connecting with other women and other stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Detail of \u201cTrump Runner,\u201d (2018). Cotton tapestry, made in Iran<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another piece, \u201cTrump Runner,\u201d shows a rug covered with Trump\u2019s face with a single tear. A jean jacket entitled \u201cIran Iran Iran Iran\u201d hangs above the rug, its back covered with multiple prints of the word \u201cIran\u201d and pop culture iconography of Kim Kardashian\u2019s crying face, a candy heart that says \u201csend nudes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talepasand laughed while saying you can\u2019t miss the rug when you walk into the gallery, with its \u201cCheeto orange man who is crying.\u201d She referred to the denim jacket above it as a kind of armor, a way of showing who you are as an Iranian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really is about the complexities of church and state, and also, this hyphenated life,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether it is first generation, second generation, whatever it may be, you feel you have this generational connection to another part of the world\u2014but you\u2019re living in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The images of Trump and the patches on the jacket come from the Kim Kardashian app Kimoji, Taravat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was this crackdown called Project Spider where they were arresting women in Iran that they felt looked like Kim Kardashian,\u201d Talepasand says. \u201cThey actually thought that Kim Kardashian was creating some kind of coup to infiltrate women in Iran, and this was absolutely absurd, as absurd as these Kimojis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIran Iran Iran Iran,\u201d (2017). Pigment, metal, rope, denim, handmade patches, assorted pins, iPhone 7 Plus<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A painting of a teddy bear and a Ken doll is titled \u201cMohammed and Jesus.\u201d Both the objects were hers when she was little, Talepasand says, and a 2007 incident in Sudan with a British teacher inspired the painting. The teacher gave a teddy bear to a child in her class who was in the hospital. When she asked the class what to name the bear, the students said Mohammed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfterwards, the parents at the school were just livid about the fact that she had allowed the teddy bear to be named Mohammed,\u201d the artist said. \u201cShe was arrested, she had lashings, and she was sent back to the UK. That story really stuck with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located at the crux of art traditions, Taravat says she uses both Eastern and Western methods in her work. For example egg tempera, which is used in both Persian miniatures and European painting. With her work, she wants to create connection.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that I am this rebellious woman in America, trying to make work that makes people feel angry or frustrated or appalled,\u201d she said. \u201cI want people to feel something and if you feel something, that\u2019s a win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0637\u0631\u0627\u0648\u062a | TARAVAT<\/strong> runs through July 23. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF. More information here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Detail of Taravat Talepasand, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” (2022). Neon She’s made it through censorship and the Trump administration\u2014and the Iranian American artist is still telling her truth. By EMILY WILSON JUNE 24, 2023 (48Hills.org) Taravat Talepasand\u2019s first name means the smell when the first spring rain lands on flowers. Fittingly,… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[729],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27110,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27101\/revisions\/27110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}