FREE SPIRIT - Much more than pretty faces on carpets!
People around the world have been protesting for freedom and equality long before the death of Mahsa Amini. It is a universal human right that genders are equal. However, this idea does not even come close to the reality of far too many women worldwide who are discriminated against or even abused.
With my painting series FREE SPIRIT, I artistically depict that women, regardless of how they choose to present themselves externally, are beautiful and valuable.
As a half-Iranian, I was born in Germany and raised in a self-determined and liberal manner by my German mother. Throughout my childhood, I did not even realize that gender equality does not exist everywhere in the world. It took until adulthood for me to begin realizing that I am highly privileged, both as a woman living in Germany and as a woman shaped by a very modern, independent, and professionally successful mother. The imprint of my childhood was that I had the right to be who I am and that I am valuable as a human being - regardless of whether I was a girl or a boy.
For me, it's becoming clear that these two components were indeed what made me the self-determined and independent woman I am today. Because living alone in Germany doesn't automatically mean that a woman can live autonomously.
Even today, this is not a given, not even in Germany.
Many of my female friends were raised in a relatively liberal and equal manner, yet to this day they live lives dependent on a man. There's nothing wrong with traditional role models, but when a woman submits to this model because it's supposedly expected of her, something is clearly amiss!
As a full-time artist, I'm naturally not as confronted with societal imbalances such as wage differences or unfulfilled women's quotas. I also don't have to adhere to conventions when it comes to my hairstyle or clothing.
Yet even I, as an artist, have been in situations that made the "problem" of being a woman clear to me. For example, I once planned a large art event with cooperation partners. Hundreds of guests had registered, along with dancers and over 25 staff members. It was months of hard work to set everything up. A few days before the event, one of the cooperation partners told me that he had changed his mind and that I had to cancel the event - unless - I would sleep with him... WTF in the truest sense.
How does one behave in such a moment?
Give in?
Throw everything away?
I unfortunately cannot answer how "one" or rather a woman behaves, but I was able to find a middle ground back then. I didn't throw everything away, nor did I give in to the immoral "offer". Instead, with a disgusted expression, I put on a brave face and managed to talk the cooperation partner out of it through joking and laughing. It turned out alright without me having to "give myself", but it was one of my first of many following situations where I suddenly and painfully became aware of how awful it can be to be a woman. This powerlessness, this dependence and vulnerability in that moment, made me understand that harassment also falls under the category of lack of equality, because if I had been a man, I would never have had to have this unpleasant and humiliating conversation, at least not in that form..
Nevertheless, in our Western countries, we are still worlds "better off" than women everywhere in the world who live in countries where there isn't even a superficial societal notion of equality.
It breaks my heart to see how my sisters (yes, also biological sisters) in Iran have to fight to be allowed to live their fundamental right to self-determination. I have no prejudices or even aversions against the hijab. I just wish so much that every woman in this world could decide for herself how she wants to present herself to the world. As self-evident and banal as this seems, we are so far from it.
In the FREE SPIRIT series, I have chosen oriental-inspired carpets as the base material. For me, these symbolize the fixed structures through predetermined patterns. I wouldn't go so far as to speak of patriarchal structures, as the beauty of the carpet patterns suggests traditional conventions that certainly have some degree of space and justification for existence. These symbolic structures are then broken through by the painting. Self-confident, almost divine beauties present themselves to the world just as they want. Sometimes with long flowing hair and lightly dressed, sometimes with a headscarf, turban, hat or braid. There is no right or wrong. My FREE SPIRIT women are allowed to be. They are allowed to be a symbiosis of both - tradition, structure and yet free, beautifully individual and self-determined.
I created this series, which emerged in 2022, for people who have preserved their free spirit, for people who experience and believe in the freedom of being and who advocate that our fundamental right is to be self-responsible and authentic. At the same time, it is a homage to all the brave women in the world who strive to be free, free in what they do, how they dress, how they present themselves to the world. It is my encouraging gesture to all women of the world. My way of saying: Both are possible, we women can be beautiful and individual and at the same time represent a part of the existing order. None of this has to contradict itself; on the contrary, it is precisely the symbiosis that makes it art!