Sepideh Farzam

Opening Event / Friday 16 November, 6 -8pm
Runs / Thu 15 – Sun 25 November

Drawing from personal experience Sepideh Farzam examines issues that implicate society, culture, identity and gender. Using mixed media and installation, childhood memories and lived experiences strongly inform a body of work that offers a metaphor for gender identity and emotion.

Sepideh Farzam

Sepideh Farzam was born in Tabriz a region located in the North-West of Iran with its own ethnic and linguistic culture distinct from Iran’s capital Tehran. Aged eighteen Sepideh moved to Tehran to study Electronic Engineering.

After immigrating to Australia Sepideh studied for a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Sydney graduating in 2010.

Sepideh exhibits in Europe, Iran and Australia and is represented by Janet Rady Fine Art in London.

Artist Statement

Personal memories and what it means to be female are at the heart of my creative practice. From these perspectives my work examines issues that implicate society, politics and culture. I am drawn to various media, such as installation, sculpture, painting and textile in order to develop work that offers a metaphor for vulnerability, emotion and gender identity. My memories and lived experiences inform the work I produce.

When I was doing my art residency in Cite Internatinale des Arts de Paris in 2013, I came up with the idea of life cycle of Cocoon to symbolize cognitive and emotional cycles of female maturation. It was the first stage of my work and it developed into current stage.

What was my inspiration was the development of the life span of certain insects experiencing transformation between immature and mature stages as well as the process of entering and completing the pupal and then changing to cocoon. Cocoon is case spun of silk by caterpillars in order to serve as a protective cover for the pupal.

I gathered used cardboard boxes for medicine, cosmetics, soap, toothpastes, biscuits and so on. I considered developing a new piece of work entitled ‘Cocoon’. I began my creation with changing and resizing those boxes, covering them with canvas and then with cotton threads on top. I was into transforming those unwanted materials to wanted objects and give them a new life.

My artwork, in fact, is influenced by the idea of shifting usual meanings and the appropriation of the normal languages to come up with new expression. My aim is to invite the viewer into the world of transformation and creation, and also, motivate them to think about unthinkable.