A Masters of Fine Arts Thesis exhibition by Golsa Yaghoobi is featured in the Fine Arts Center Gallery August 25 – September 5, 2008. Yaghoobi was born and raised in post-revolution Iran — a very different culture than that which she has come to know as a graduate student at the University of Arkansas. This series of monochromatic paintings deals with the contrast between the world she knew as a child in Iran and the conflict she feels as she completes her studies and considers returning to her homeland. “Can I become the person I used to be and accept all the constraints that now look so cruel? Once blind, now that I have seen for a short time, as I consider losing my sight again, I must deal with conflicting emotions…” states the artist.
Most of the paintings in this series depict veiled women, some even appear to be ‘bound’ by their clothing, and many of the paintings are installed in diptychs and triptychs, divided by portable walls that emphasize the isolation these women feel. Excerpts from contemporary poetry, written by Iranian women, are part of the visual image, with English translations of the calligraphic Farsi script included on the labels. Again from the artist’s statement: “I chose to work in black because that is a color of sadness and mourning, as well as the traditional color worn by women in Iran. It contrasts with the bright colors of an individual’s interior life and with the coloration of my new life.”
A reception for the artist was held on August 28. For more information, contact
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gyaghoo@uark.edu
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