For just about forty minutes earlier this summer, we got to have a sit down with Zahra Baseri. And in that amount of time we were fortunate to have learnt a great deal from the Iranian-born, Winnipeg based artist. Her individual experiences and observations living in an oppressive Islamic regime has stirred her to take a bracingly honest and critical look in the society she lived through. The absence of the female voice in the Islamic society she grew up in is a palpable assessment in Baseri’s recent BMO’s 1st Art! award-winning Outcry series. Below is our conversation with Baseri: we go into the nuances of her work, her creative process, and where her earliest creative inclinations came from.
Zahra Baseri On Outcry:
The current body of work is related to my personal background and experience. With this series, I’m looking at it from a critical standpoint. It has a lot to do with being born and growing up—especially as a female—in an Islamic culture under a theocratic regime which has led to a vast violation of human rights. The free-standing sculptural piece references a cage or a cell but its external design may come off as very ornate and beautified in a way, and that's because it is how some people view it but for me it is the opposite. For me, behind what seems to be beautified, there is an unpleasantness to it in terms of human rights and in terms of women’s rights. The piece is made with my size and height, therefore when I stand in it I’m restricted by its dome and eight sides. I’m not able to see outside from the inside very clearly. It’s very much associated with the specific Islamic culture where women wear these black coverings that go all over their bodies, in some Muslim countries the entire face has to be covered and if not done properly there could be arrests and charges put in place against you. Something simple just like a piece of clothing of your choice—a very basic right anyone should have—is taken away; you have a specifically required clothing instead. It is acknowledged that the Hijab is the “flag of the state” as though if you don’t have the Hijab it cannot be called an Islamic country. The Hijab is used as means to control, define, and limit women to domesticity. But the Hijab is just one of many ways women are being limited.
When it comes to academics, when it comes to some jobs like engineering or law, females are discouraged and told they cannot, and instead should be a mother or a wife and those are the issues I’m concerned with this body of work.
Outcry 2 (2016). 3mm Plywood, India ink, laser print photos Each 30.5 x 45.7 cm; 18 x 12 in Photo Courtesy of Artist
With the painting I included, the colors are very common in Persian and Islamic imagery and the same goes for the pattern that repeats across the painting. I was interested in creating and breaking down a pattern that then relates to ideas of how women and men are seen and their implied roles in some cultures such as Islamic ones. I used the same patterns in some of the other works as a kind of motif of imprisoning and constraint.
Outcry 1 2015, acrylic on Canvas, 183cm X 152cm Photo Courtesy of Artist
I wanted to create that prison-like enclosing as a way for bringing the audience into my experience. I tried to make it as a claustrophobic space but I know some people might feel a comfort or feel safe instead and that is now the way some women in these communities have come to know that way of living. They believe they are safe and secured that way. But my experience is different. And I am aware it is not the same for every Islamic society. But I know from my experience women are seen as creatures for giving pleasure to men. whether they are naked or fully covered, they are seen as objects.
Outcry 3, 2016, laser cut MDF wood, spray paint, piano hinges, 213cm x 79cm x 79cm Photo Courtesy of Artist
Luther Konadu: How is the hexagonal shape of the enclosing significant to the religion?
Zahra Baseri: Yes, that shape as well as hexagonal shapes reoccurs in a majority of Islamic Architecture. And in Islamic teachings, it is related to the holy realm, the divine, or a heavenly realm. It is believed that the almighty sits on a throne with eight columns in paradise. Therefore, for the formal aspects of the work I took a lot of references from Islamic art and architecture.
LK: Are these treatments toward women stemming as a reference to what it is believed in the religion/the Quran or governmental powers?
ZB: The Islamic religion has been reinterpreted in so many different ways. Everyone has their own way of understanding it. However, when that is enforced by the ruling system or the government then everything is different. It means you don’t have a choice. You can’t choose how to look at it. You have to obey. They use religion as a means of power and the way they think. It is used as a way to dictate whatever they want on people. These types of totalitarian powers believe the more they control people the more they can survive. Freedom of speech is one thing that has been heavily violated as a result. There are cases where if you say something different from what is generally believed, you can be imprisoned or something much worse. There are bloggers who have written online about their dissatisfaction with the regime and have been arrested. The authorities do not comply with the 21st century when it comes to human rights. They see a modern society as being driven by western values which corrupts Islamic values and therefore has to be resisted. They are very much restricted in their worldview.
Photo Contribution by Mary Rose
LK: Where do you thing this mentality comes from
ZB: I think it goes far way back in history, thousands and hundreds of years of non-democratic systems. Critical thinking has always been discouraged and it’s a part of the culture so it’s not that easy to have people see different ways of thinking. As soon as you start to criticize or think differently, it might be considered dangerous, so people don’t want to risk that. Regardless of the occupation one has, be it an artist, filmmaker, lawyer, etc, they always have to comply with the oppressive rules, otherwise they will get into serious problems.
Because of the freedom I have living in a country like Canada I am able to talk about issues, which have affected me personally, through art making.
LK: If you were to do this work elsewhere would it change?
ZB: From my perspective, the work wouldn’t change but that would also mean I would be taking a big risk upon myself doing this work in a less free country. At the moment, I want to keep creating work that is in connection with my background culture and the politics attached to it. I can never detach myself from that.
LK: Do you think being geographically distant from the issue and where the issue is occurring will change or skew in a way?
ZB: That’s interesting to think about. Where I come from, internet access is limited and the media is censored. Being here in Canada gives me enough access to learning even more; I’m not restricted from several ways of accessing information from different points of views. So I am well aware of what is happening in other parts of the world.
LK: Since you are not within the culture and closely involved in the everyday environment there, do you think your attention to those issues will possibly become peripheral to you now?
ZB: You are right. However, I have family there so in a way I’m also there. I’m always keeping up with the news and always trying to gain insight on what is going on there, so in a way that environment and culture is always alive and present to me. Being in Canada makes me more connected to my home country and to the world at large because again, what I want to learn and be educated about is not filtered or limited; I have more of an opportunity to understand more and think critically.
Photo Contribution by Mary Rose
LK: Are they any artists you were looking at whilst (or before starting) working on the work?
ZB: Yes, I was really inspired by Mona Hatoum when I saw a show of hers at the Pompidou Centre in Paris a summer ago. She’s a Palestinian-British artist. She is a sculptor, video artist and installation artist. I really liked the different materials and mediums she uses in her work. Shirin Neshat is another artist whose work I respect.
LK: Have you always had the inclination to make creative work?
ZB: Yes, and no. I have always made stuff, I always liked painting. But I come from a practical family and my family always wanted the best for their children like any other family. They wanted me to get into something where I can find a job and be self-sufficient but it’s also about the need for status. They wanted me to get into medicine or law or something like that. Going to art school seemed a bit rebellious to them.
Photo Contribution by Mary Rose