SARA RAHBAR

ART REPORT/ Sara Rahbar

On The Transformative Power Of Art/ By Jenny Held /2015

Originally born in Tehran, multi-media artist Sara Rahbar has spent the past 35 years in New York creating a body of work that is both physically and emotionally heavy. Rahbars work spans a variety of media from thick military tarps to wood and cast bronze. Objects are sown, nailed, and soldered into emotionally charged works that are simultaneously sensitive and aggressive. Since the beginning, her artwork has been a means to express herself, catalyzed by a lifetime of social and political tensions. Sara is presumably best known for her flag series. The collection, which spans from 2005 to 2015, consists of multimedia collages of American and Iranian flags. She primarily used traditional Iranian textiles and military paraphernalia in order to explore deeper concepts of nationalism and belonging. As the series progressed, her works got larger and bolder also taking on topics of democracy, capitalism, and religion. 

Recently, Sara has stepped away from assembling found objects and has begun to cast her own body parts in bronze. Her willingness to explore the raw roots of her own emotions have pacified her more antagonistic artistic styles. Through this maturation she hopes to tackle the construct of the Self versus the Other and the universally complex impulses of human nature. 

While it would be easy to imagine Sara as a brooding artist based on the masculine, aggressive nature of her work, in reality she is a light and humorous woman that uses her work as a peaceful outlet. She is a true testament to the healing power of creativity and expression. 

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The Workers Trap: An Interview with Sara Rahbar/ Jadaliyya / By Danna Lorch/2015

Dirty gold is the color that smothers every surface of Sara Rahbars New York City studio. Disembodied casts of the artists own anxiously clenched hands and feet are laid out, clinically, on long tables alongside bullet casings, rifle butts, chains, and other found objects. With the same studied intensity that won her the art worlds lofty recognition for her earlier textiles, Rahbar spent the past two years with her ebony hair pulled back out of her face, hunched over these tables, teaching herself how to sculpt. 

We held our interview in Dubai at Carbon 12, the gallery that represents Rahbar, which is tucked in a warehouse in the gritty industrial area of Al Quoz, a world away from the opulent hotels and skyscrapers that the city is best known for. We floated in swivel chairs over the gallerys polished concrete floor, surrounded by Swarming, the show that represents the culmination of Rahbars first sculptures, and the marriage of 206 Bones and Confessions, two heavily loaded series addressing sociopolitical issues in America, from the high expectations and perceived failings of Obamacare, to the raw PTSD experienced by returning soldiers; a group the artist considers as part of the workforce. All of the materials for the sculptures-from sickles, to wheels, and wood- have been heavily used by workers and call into question civilizations collective surge towards both everything and nothing. 

In her unmistakably New York accent, Rahbar stubbornly suggested that although the show is personal, it does not deal with her childhood escape from Iran with her family, nearly dying in the mountains, then struggling to pull together a new identity in America. Though that story unfolds like a box office hit, its been over hashed in the media, and after thirty-five years spent in the United States, Rahbar rejects that narrative as having any influence on this latest work. Like a ghost, her refugee past has shadowed her whether she likes it or not in every interview shes ever given. 

Rahbar first became known for her Flags, a prolific, numbered series that consumed her for nearly a decade, and was the topic of a lecture delivered at The British Museum in October, following the acquisition of two works for the institutions permanent collection. Rahbar rent, patched, and embroidered various textiles from Iran onto and into the American flag, reappropriating the traditional flag into a new kind of canvas. Interestingly enough, the series began as the artists desperate exploration of the tearing of her own family fabric, but was interpreted as political art, while Swarming is engaging directly with political and social issues-the stuff of public monuments presented in a gallerys sterile white space. 

Our conversation at Carbon 12 began nervously, progressed bluntly, and ended in laughter. 

-Danna Lorch (DL): Your sculptures introduce some distance between you and the flags you are best known for. Did you feel trapped artistically by the success and recognition of that early series? 

-Sara Rahbar (SR): I did for a minute, but I dont feel trapped anymore. The flags came instinctively to me and I worked on them until I was complete with that conversation, and then I very naturally moved on. 

-DL: There are themes of labor and oppression evident in Swarming. Are you insinuating that modern capitalism invites a vicious cycle? 

-SR: The concept of swarming refers to a group of living things gathered in one place, whether its wasps, soldiers in an army, or the growing heartbeat of a revolution. There is a sense of tension in the cast hands and feet. When I get really nervous or angry, I clench my feet and my hands. These sculptures reference that frozen state of pain and anxiety. The two series are about modern day slavery, the laborer, soldiers PTSD, and the everyday pain and violence that surround us all. 

-DL: If youre a worker who is paid by the hour, you generally put your own needs and desires on hold for the good of someone else. 

-SR: The worker becomes part of a machine. Its a trap, a prison. Accumulating money, and more and more of it, symbolizes freedom and having additional choices in life. This show is very personal for me, as all my shows are. It takes on these bigger conversations, but its all still to do with my life. Im focusing on these subjects because they closely impact me. 

-DL: How do you feel about being labelled as an Iranian artist? Are you comfortable or uncomfortable with that designation? 

-SR: Honestly, Im very anti-label. My left eye twitches when Im referred to as an Iranian artist, an Iranian American artist, or a Female Iranian artist. As a kid I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was struck by the paintings of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. At the time I never knew where these artists came from or had any background information on them. It was simple-I encountered something visual, it moved me beyond words and I never forgot it. I hope that my work can surpass all these labels and speak a more universal language. 

-DL: So out of principle, youre not interested in capitalizing off the latest art world buzz words, even if it grows your name? 

-SR: When people call me Iranian, it feels awkward sometimes because I am so disconnected from that culture. Ive lived in New York for over 35 years now. Its my home. I speak, think, and dream in English. My whole life has happened in the United States. 

-DL: Nothing left to win, nothing left to lose is particularly unsettling. How and why did the concept for the sculpture appear to you? 

-SR: I remember this game from my childhood that I used to play. A small object is hidden in a hand and then moved around behind the back. Its a childrens game, and you have to try to guess whether the object has been concealed in the right or the left palm. This piece stemmed from that idea. Its about empty promises and games people play. You think youre holding onto something, but in reality youre holding onto nothing. You never really own anything. It always owns you and it becomes a daily struggle just to sustain what is yours. 

-DL: You once said that youd like for people to view your textiles and sculptures in the same way that they encounter a painting. Why did you suggest that? 

-SR: I said that because I work with collected objects from the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and I am always being asked to explain the history behind them. I dont necessarily know the origins of my materials, or need to in order to be able to work with them. Its not about that for me. I search for odd and interesting objects at flea markets and garage sales, throw them in a pile in the corner of my studio and then focus on arranging them by color and composition; moving them around until I find balance. Painting is where I began my practice and for me its still about color, composition, texture, and finding a beginning and an end. 

-DL: In terms of color, this newer work stays within shades of gold and brown. Thats quite a departure from the vivid textiles and embroidery of your flags. 

-SR: Sometimes Im a little embarrassed when I look back at my earliest flags, or initial works in general. They were so bright. Now I need less to say more. Im in love with dirty gold, black, and dark greens. I pour ammonia on the bronze to darken it. I want these pieces to look beat-up, dragged through the mud, scraped, and scratched. I want them to look like they have been to hell and back; I love imperfection. 

-DL: Every interview with you always starts off with the dramatic narrative of your family’s escape from Iran. Do you feel that your history is intimately connected to your artistic practice or does it take away from the strength of your work? 

-SR: I wonder if that portion of my biography is even relevant anymore. The work is about much more than that. Oftentimes in interviews Im not asked about my past, yet the writer still inserts that portion of my life at the beginning of the article. I have moved on, so that narrative feels imposed. 

-DL: How were you taught to sculpt? Was it part of your graduate curriculum at Central St. Martins? 

-SR: Id always wanted to do sculpture, but it can be expensive and challenging, it took me ten years to be able to begin and Ive never been trained in any particular medium beyond sewing. At Central St. Martins they didn’t teach us how to make things, they taught us how to think. I had to figure the rest out on my own. 

-DL: Did you have any help in the studio or did you learn to do everything by hand yourself? 

-SR: I dont have a crew of assistants helping me. I figure out how Im going to do something by experimenting. The first time I drilled into wood for 206 Bones it split down the middle because it was so old and fragile. I worked with wood and bronze for over two years until I finally got a good sense of it. Ive been working with textiles for ten and I know that there is still more to learn. 

Since I dont have an oven in my studio, I go to Modern Art Foundry in Queens. This foundry has been around for eighty years and was actually the place where Louise Bourgeois cast her first spider. I chose them because they let artists come and work for hours and that is very important to me as I need to be involved in the making own my own sculptures. 

-DL: Would you say that you nurture or beat yourself up in the studio? 

-SR: Since I was very young I was constantly questioning myself, and the world around me. That questioning has always been a vital part of my practice. Sometimes its smooth and sometimes its painful-its a rollercoaster ride, a wresting match-but its necessary, and part of the process. 

-DL: This kind of sensitivity is critical. In the UAE, which is a young, yet accomplished country, there is still not always enough heaviness to the art, although a lot of it is certainly pretty. 

-SR: It takes time for history to happen and you cant fake it or fast-forward that process. Life is raw, messy and chaotic. You get beat up by it all. Its painful to be on this planet day in and day out, and the only way that I can survive it, is by making work about it. 

-DL: Art referencing the American flag is typically associated with folk art. In America there is a tradition of textiles and flags that traces all the way back to Betsy Ross hand sewing the first flag, to Jasper Johns mixed media reinterpretations, and then feminist artists like Barbara Kruger reclaiming it in a fresh form. Similarly, there is an established tradition of sculpture referencing workers rights and issues, often in memorials found in public parks or in conjunction with monuments. What place does this tradition of Americana have in your practice? 

-SR: Its all just a reflection of my life, what I have witnessed and the memories that I have held on to. 

-DL: Out of the corner of my eye I keep checking on Do you love me from across the gallery, and waiting for its feet to begin scuttling across the concrete floor. 

-SR: Originally this piece was meant to be installed on the wall, so that the feet would never touch the ground and remain in a frozen state of anxiety and waiting. The feet are controlled by the object above them, which moves them in different positions and directions. I battle feeling awkward and uncomfortable in my own skin on a daily basis, feeling restless, irritable and lost, and Im addressing those feelings in this piece. 

-DL: Are you uncomfortable now? 

-SR: Im always uncomfortable and there is a very angry, negative, and judgemental voice in my head on a daily basis, which causes me a lot of angst. Making art is the only thing that makes sense to me and allows me to go on from one day to the next. Sometimes while Im in the studio I play recordings of Sylvia Plaths poetry readings and it calms me somehow. Ive battled depression my entire life and art has been one of the few things I have found that has helped me tremendously. Seeing it, being around it and making it, gives me purpose and hope. 

-DL: If you somehow banished that voice how would it change your practice? 

-SR: I cant even imagine being without that voice. Maybe Id start to paint flowers? 
 

Harper's Bazaar Art/by Katrina Kufer/2014

Sara Rahbar toes categorical lines that the art world is eager to impress upon the dent in contemporary art that she is making (two works recently acquired by the British Museum, current presence at the Centre Pompidou). Call her neo-dada for intuitive assemblage, reference German practice for materials, havent Rauschenberg or Marisol been thrown in too? Rahbars practice is unintentionally shrewd, offering itself to potentially everything, but fitting nothing in actuality. Her trademark use of conflict-inundated forms permits enough plausible clarity that should be easily definable, but counter-intuitively, there is isolation in her multi-faceted belonging. 

Belonging to an art historical categorization, not contextualization, is restrictive, she laments. This applies to her being, too. Rahbar is Artist first and last. [My work is] layered with life, definitions and meaning... we have enough boundaries, borders and limitations in this world, I want someone 400 years from now to still understand and connect to [my work]. Its about being human, not Iranian, American, Woman' nor Immigrant. It's about being alive on this planet and trying to survive your self, life and the world. Before we consider those secondary factors anyway, we have to rectify where her practice even art historically exists... if shell let us. 

Belonging is a curious thing; culturally, an amalgamation of globalized (ancient and present) influences; artistically, a seminal text and retrospect. Belonging is something that is easy to say and easier to take for granted... what happens when you cannot? Third Culture Kids, a term coined in the 1950s for children raised outside of their own culture/country reveals a phenomenon of individuals who rapidly absorb and assimilate but lack concrete roots to identify fully with anything. They constitute a new non-culture culture, a position of permanent flux... fragments that make a new kind of whole. It doesnt pertain to the pain of lacking, how can one miss what one never had, rather, the search for cohesion, often clinging to what parts they can. For Rahbar, objects. Because of experiences in my first few years, Ive spent the rest obsessively collecting and piecing together in a way that made sense to me... as if I was reliving something, trying to crazy-glue a broken lamp back together. Rahbar is referencing fleeing Iran with her family at age four due to the Iran-Iraq war, and merely does what TCKs do best: reevaluate the parameters of belonging. 

Identity is fluid: the nature of existence, the fact we age, acquire life experience, move, and even if we do not, the world around us does. We may passively absorb the changes with our senses, but our minds eye pays attention, periodically leaking latent influences. Rahbars mind's eye has been on over-drive, gravitating towards objects instinctively, perhaps referencing the circumstances of her relocation, possibly just indicative of her aesthetic. It causes her works to emerge organically, focusing on one at a time until it reaches the apex. This completes sublimation and catharsis, but Rahbar isnt sure why or how, this is just way it is. There is no subduing the Beast (latent memories) so one must let it be, I just trust and listen when it needs to be heard. 

Rahbars oeuvre consists of carefully collected, curated and hoarded objects found at flea markets, vintage auctions and dealers that tackle subjects I want to address, initiating a conversation in my head, building a universe. But it also comes from memory, that feeling of longing, a place I cant touch or hold onto. With scientific precision, she meticulously reorganizes disconnected materials with surprising tendernes... the kind of love expected when creating a state of stable permanence. Juxtaposition is poignant.. Rahbar unites objects by hand (drilling, sewing, etc.), an obsessive fix ensuring they (her inner, creative and external worlds) do not fall apart. But it is an unsettling harmony, created with objects that are by nature destructive. The stability is instability, what sustains simultaneously destroys in an inescapable catch-22. Its a vicious cycle. I want and desperately need security and safety, yet I am drawn to things/people that arent. I don't want pain yet I cause myself pain and am attracted to painful things. You repeat what you know and have learned. The paradoxical tone is unmistakable, as is the blunt statement of fact via retrospectively captured moments of anguish. Im not necessarily trying to be an artist, simply attempting to visually communicate my traumas and emotions... turning something ugly into something beautiful. It is beautiful, but it is terrifying; this is the Kant-ian sublime embodied in the form of adorned flags, stained tarps, repurposed gas masks, makeshift guns and contorted feet. 

The violent materiality does not overwhelm the poetry though, from lengthy emotive titles to the compositionally considered musings on the human condition. While her 2005 flags were heavily populated with textiles and varying cultural elements exploring her origins, she moved forward with her War series (2009-), assemblage using almost exclusively military materials copiously adorned with metal weaponry, abrupt script and blood splatter. If War was the instigator, the following Confessions (2011-) is the aftermath immortalized in sepia-hued mixed media. More sculptural, more humanly identifiable...and thus more agonized with bronzes of her own hands, feet and head attached to chains, rods and boards to represent shoulders, arms and legs with a plethora of near-piercing spikes. 

Her choice of appendages, often used historically to indicate vulnerability and suffering, are body parts that can have pain inflicted upon without leaving physical traces, much like psychological trauma. Mental discomfort rises exponentially at the awareness of pain but inability to see what/why/how. Rahbar associates tension to these irreplaceable essential corporeal elements, in extreme moments of anxiety, I curl my toes, make tight fists...it only felt right [to cast them]. Everything that I do requires all three (feet, hands, head)... they are so fragile, so easily broken. 

The artworks may cut into your space, but she brings you into them, transferring trauma from artist to work to viewer, allowing the spectator to finish the story. Rahbars memories are hers; we do not need her past in ours to awaken the universally accessible existential quest for stabilizing belonging that the works incur. Even superficially, the works beg the question, where did these objects come from, why are they together now? I remember when I was a child at museums, I didnt know the artists names, never read any wall texts, I was simply moved beyond words by something visually strong, sometimes beautiful. I want that for my work, to surpass labels, time, my/any back-story. In the end its visual art... it needs to be visually potent. Anything else is extra. I like works that keep giving every time you see it... like a great book that you never get tired of, discovering new things every time you read it. Given the quantity of components substantiating her works, viewers have a rich starting point from which to incite their own sensorial memories. 

Memory is also curiously fickle... residing in your mind but coming alive through your senses. The art world may decree look, dont touch, but you don't need your eyes to understand a Rahbar; they play to each sense: inviting your eyes to rest as you carefully hold that cast-white bronze hand dangling from a chain; asking your sense of smell to cast aside the must of historied patriotic textiles in favor of the gentle jingling of ethnic bells; keeping your fingertips pocketed as your eyes grow accustomed to the accosting dense unification of stuff. She uses her experience to create an external visceral one, capturing that internalized lacuna both before and after trauma. 

206 Bones (2013-), though the next logical step in her trajectory, is also a noteworthy shift away from shattering towards regeneration. The objects no longer lie side-by-side in solitary impersonal confinement. Her body casts, expanded to reference laborers, are still dismembered but not disjointed, now interacting with each other, reassembling into forms that resemble but will never quite be the way they were before.. but one step closer to finding a more complete state of being. Trauma may denote trauma, but through observation and experience, Rahbar challenges the fragility and inevitable ephemerality of something that should last/exist but doesnt, gently rebuilding and redefining sustainability with her metaphorical crazy-glue. Is Rahbar transfixed in the past, or does she understand that stability may not exist without instability? Every push has its pull; what happens when the pain stops and the cycle ends? 

I am calmer and clearer, and as a result, the work is too. Time is also a strong factor. 18 years Ive been working, pushing myself to experiment rather than stagnate; the recent series are a more in-depth continuation of the same conversation as flags. This inner voice kept telling me that Im going in the right direction despite any fears, there is definitely a calm, less resistance, more trust, in my life and work because they are and always will always be intertwined. But my practice isnt dependent on any one thing. As long as Im alive Ill make work, its as natural as breathing, a reflection of where I am emotionally, physically, mentally. I address a lot of heavy subjects but... for the first time in my life, I have found my peace. 

Belonging may not need the pre-determination; Rahbar shows it forges itself a new space when there is none. And so it seems, for a moment at least, the Beast can finally go to sleep. 



 

Sara Rahbar 
rooms magazine/By Jesc Bunyard/2013

-What concepts and thoughts drive your practice? 

My work is a very instinctive, and its its roots stem my life. I have this deep obsession with piecing and holding things together. Maybe Im afraid that things are always falling apart around me and by sewing and welding things together, they will some how stay together, and that some how I will stay together. Its cathartic & very therapeutic for me. I have to do it and I cant seem to stop doing it, its my lifeline, my sanity. I think that when we are nakedly honest and sharing our basic human emotions, ideas and feelings become borderless. Thats how I make-work; I am just nakedly sharing all that I am witnessing. 

-Your practice explores autobiographical elements whilst reworking ideas of nationalism. Can you explain a little more about how these aspects interact? 

The work is a direct reflection of my life. And I focus on ideas that are important to me and that I am passionate about. Memory also plays its role; what I have lived through and experienced for the last 30 something years has its effects as well. I am constantly in a state of questioning, dissecting and attempting to understand myself, and all that I see taking shape and form around me. I have this obsession with flags and ideas of nationality and this need for belonging to something, to someone or to somewhere. My work addresses the human condition, love, pain, fear and violence, attempting to survive our selves, our lives and our geographic locations. I have always just wanted to feel a feeling of being safe, a feeling of security. I haven been running since I was a child, to and away from, people, circumstances and life in general. And I have always longed to just be able to sit & stay for a while & feel like I can trust & let go. I have never felt like that & that longing shows up in my work allot, staring me right in the eyes. I know a piece is complete when I reach a point of salvation and closure; its instinctual, like love. 

-Your work deals with political themes in an aesthetically pleasing or poetical method. Has this always been a concern and why? 

Its not so much a concern, as its just my natural way of working. Im obsessed with color and composition and strive for some kind of balance and order in the midst of all of the chaos. And in the whirlwind in my mind where violence, pain and love all live in the same place, I strive to make sense of it all, and in the balancing and composing of the work, I find balance and peace, even if only for a short while. 

-Your flags are probably you most recognizable works. Can you explain a little more about them? 

I have been working and experimenting with various types of textiles and collected objects for over 15 years now. And the first textile that I began working with was the American flag. I had so much emotional attachment to America, the idea of the American dream and the American flag, that it was the most natural thing for me to do; I was instantly drawn to it and worked with it for about 10 years. I need to piece things together, to put them back together again in a way that makes sense to me. The flag series was my way of trying to understand something and to find completion with it. 

-Which medium do you prefer to work with a why? 

I dont really have any preferred medium. I work with whatever moves me and best communicates that which I wish to communicate. I work with materials and objects that I am excited to work with. I love a wide array of textures, colors and shapes and am not attached to anything specific. Everything is constantly in a state of motion and change. At the moment I like wood and metal, I like tough, heavy duty, strong materials that have lived and survived, and stood the test of time.  

-Where do you see your work going next? 

My best guess would be sculpture. A continuation of what I am currently working on, but perhaps at a much larger scale. 

-Whats next for you? 

My life and work always surprise me and particularly when I think that I have it all figured out, mapped out and planned and organized. But what I would really love is a proper studio where I can work at a really large scale and really go above and beyond what I ever thought was possible. 


 

Art Radar, Batons, bones and guns: an interview with mixed-media artist Sara Rahbar 
Art Radar/By Lisa Pollman/2014

Mixed-media innovator Sara Rahbar transitions from textiles to wooden guns to examine economic and political tension in contemporary society. 

Sara Rahbar, well-known for her pivotal Flag series, has recently moved from working primarily with textiles to wooden and metal assemblages. Art Radar spoke with the artist to learn more about why she is collecting nineteenth-century objects and how her escape from Iran in the 1980s impacted both her life and her artwork. 

Iranian-born artist Sara Rahbar roared onto the international art stage in 2005 with her emblematic Flag series. Residing in New York for the past 33 years, Rahbar has recently been exploring sculptures made of wood and metal in response to societal tension and violence. 

The artists work has been widely shown throughout the world, including recent offerings at Art Dubai and Art Brussels and is a part of prominent international collections, including those at the Centre Pompidou, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art and the Sharjah Art Foundation. 

Art Radar sat down with Rahbar to learn more about her newest series 206 Bones and Confessions, what catches her eye at remote flea markets throughout the United States, and the cathartic manifestations of her artwork. 

Origins 

-Please tell our readers about your familys escape from Iran to the United States in 1981, and how that experience plays out in each piece of art that you create. 

I dont believe that I consciously think about the impact on each individual piece or even the impact on my life in general. When I left [Iran], I was four years old, and Ive been in the United States for 33 years. So, I dont even think about it. Its just automatic.  

My work is always a reflection of my life: what Im focusing on, and what is boiling, twisting and turning inside of me. Sometimes I feel like Im falling apart, coming apart, piece-by-piece. I always feel like I’m right on the edge. Yet, through it all, somehow the work keeps me together. Its my own private catharsis. 

I work so intimately, from my deepest, personal feelings and memories. Its very emotional. This way, I think, everything has an impact, in every part of my life. Even things that I dont consciously think I am incorporating, are being incorporated because everything is very deep-rooted. The things that you think have disappeared sometimes show up again and again. This is like therapy for me, this work. Its all playing a role, even if I am not aware of it. 

Regarding how we left [Iran], basically we had all of our paperwork and visas but the Iranian hostage crisis happened and the Iran-Iraq war had started and they closed the borders. We had to escape. We escaped on foot, and it took about seven days. It was not what we anticipated. We thought it would be a lot shorter. We were promised cars, airplanes and things which would make it easy, but it was not that way. We were tricked. 

There was one point when we were in the mountains, and we ran out of money. Our smugglers pretty much took everything that we had brought. We thought we had enough to get us through. They wanted more, and we didnt have it, so they left us. A lot of people died in those mountains. We got lucky. I guess the guy felt sorry because my brother was a baby, and I was four. There was a moment when somebody actually felt bad, and this one guy helped us get to the border. We went from Turkey to Dubai to New York. 

-Is your artwork a blend of Persian and American motifs, or do you think youve been in the United States long enough that youre drawing primarily from American symbolism at this point? 

My immediate surroundings definitely effect me. There are always things that pop up from my childhood when I least expect it. We [just] talked about borders and boundaries. I am working on a piece right now thats about borders and boundaries and lines that we should and shouldnt cross. I am remembering every day, things that have to do with our escape and that time. Its not specific and not conscious. I have to sit there and analyse it, or it just goes right by, like a soft wind, always there in the background. Its very instinctual. I am not always aware of why I do something, I just trust my instincts. 

-Would you say you work organically? 

Yes, its very organic. I dont map, sketch, analyse or plan things out. I see an object, it triggers something, and I just go with it. Sometimes, I know why. Most of the time, I dont know why. Years pass and still I dont know why. I work with what I am drawn to. Its very organic, and it just comes together. 

-At this point, as an artist, are you accessing your ideas from a place of trust? How are you guided by the pieces that you choose intuitively? 

Exactly. As you said, theres a trust. Thats something that just comes with time, age and experience. When I was younger, there was a lot of doubt and a lot of confusion. As time passed by and [I created] piece after piece after piece, I just became more in tune with my intuition, and I listen because it never leads you astray. If somethings showing up over and over again, if something is pushing me towards something, theres a reason for it. I just trust, and now its so smooth. The only bumps in the road now are actually troubleshooting, [such as] figuring out how to attach the pieces together and make the work. The technical stuff. My ideas are so much smoother, I listen now. 

-You are a mixed-media artist. What found-objects, in specific, interest you most? Why? 

Its hard to say that one object specifically moves me or interests me more than another because its constantly in transition and changing. Basically, wherever I am, whatever I see; its random. At the moment, I am working with a lot of wood and metal and objects that hold and tie things together, like chains, a lot of tools. I like objects that are very strong, things that arent going to break or fall apart. I know I am attracted to them for different reasons. I go towards things that are strong, help hold or piece things together and hold them in place. It has a lot to do with ideas of control. Someone once told me that when I was sewing, I was in a state of mind that things around me were constantly falling apart. So sewing was cathartic and I was trying to hold things together. Whenever I finish something, theres a [feeling of] ease. There is a calm in the ocean for a short period of time. 

A very full studio 

-Are there any interesting or surprising stories behind one specific piece or found-object that youd like to share? 

Actually, this is the only question that you sent that I couldnt think of anything specific for. Its because of the amount of objects that I accumulate. I am a borderline hoarder right now. Ive been thinking of getting a booth at a flea market, or figuring out some other way of getting rid of all of this stuff. I go to places in the middle of nowhere, and compared to the amount of stuff that I see, I dont buy that much, but still my shelves and tables at my studio are filled, and there are objects and things everywhere. Sometimes [collecting] is hit or miss. You think something is amazing. You think its a great idea, but it doesnt go through. What do you do? I cant throw it out! So, you collect and become a hoarder. 

Flag series 

-Many know of your work through your Flag series (2005-2014), a fifty-two piece series using American and Iranian flags. Would you say these pieces are deconstructed? 

I am just piecing things together and deconstructing something at the same time. Some things are falling apart, and other things are coming together again and deconstruction is definitely a part of it. 

-How has this series been received by Americans? 

I have been asked this question a lot, because it is the American flag, because I live in the United States and because of the extreme sensitivity that surrounds the American flag. I have been showing this body of work for around ten years now, and I have had a mix of reactions to the work. It was the first body of work that I ever did, and it was a really successful series for me; from the first flag to the last flag. In no way was this series meant to be angry, hateful or negative in any way. It was just a reflection of my life, as all my work is, in the end. I was just recording history, my history. 

-Is there a meditative quality to sewing together pieces or painstakingly adding a found object/s to complete a piece? How? 

Definitely. I think all of the work is meditative, soothing and cathartic. First of all, I have to do it. I dont think there was [ever] a point where I thought I choose to do this. Find broken things, mend them and put them together. Its an obsession. When its complete, I definitely feel lighter. If I didnt do this, I cant image what I would do with my life. Theres nothing else that would really get me out of bed. I am a bit all over the place when I am thinking, processing and planning especially when pieces are complicated. But when its done or when I am working on it, and its working smoothly, its definitely so soothing and relaxing. 

-How do you know when a piece is done? 

I just know. There are definitely some pieces that I have done immediately. Others, Ill go back to in a year or so and Ill think, Thats what it was! Sometimes it happens with one or two [pieces] and it bothers you like that name that you forgot and you cant sleep until you remember it. I just put it aside and keep looking at it. Now, I am calmer. I just let go. If its not finished, its not finished. I cant force it but when its done, I am so sure. Theres no doubt in my mind. 

-As a female artist born in Iran and residing in the United States, which visual artist has inspired you most? 

I may have to email you a list. I have so many! I dont ever think about those type of labels such as Iranian or female artists born in Iran and living in the United States. I always had problems with Middle Eastern shows putting me in the Iranian section. When I think of my favourite artists, I never think about where they are from. I just remember the pieces that moved me. 

New series, new materials 

-Pieces from your Confession series were just shown at Art Brussels 2014. Could you talk about the work You gently ripped me to shreds and what the series is about? 

When I started sculpture, I immediately went to my hands, feet and head. It was very instinctual. I cast my hands and feet, the positions that my hands and feet are in when I am stressed, angry or nervous. I caught myself doing that once and realised, I do this every single time. When I began making [these] sculptures, that was the first thing that I wanted to do. In You gently ripped me to shreds, its this tense position with my hands, and the object its hanging off of is called a ratchet strap. Its a device that is used to hold things down or tie things down. It uses tension to hold things in place. They use it for caravans, huge trucks, trailer homes, tie-down packages or to move heavy things like sand or dirt. [Its] the same idea with the chains, too. There were so many things in my mind. I was thinking about jail and control and things that make you feel chained down or feel tension. Thats where that came from. 206 Bones and the Confession series came from this feeling of tension, violence and pain. 

-Tell us about your newest series, 206 Bones. Does the title reference the two hundred and six bones found in the human body? 

Yes. I dont know why this came so naturally. The body parts were all cast in metal but the title worked for me. It was all about hands and feet and workers working with their hands and feet. Ive been working on it for two years, but it seems like it just started. For the first time, I am working with wood. I have fifteen pieces now but I have a long way to go. There are a lot of found objects and I spend a lot of the time piecing the wood and metal together with very old pieces of wood. Many of these pieces, tools and things, are from the nineteenth century. So theres a lot of troubleshooting. 
In the beginning, I had no clue. Id buy these aggressive drills from Home Depot. I’d drill something, and the thing would crack in half [because] it was super old. Basically, I was just learning how to work with the wood. Ive worked with textiles my whole life, so I was just figuring it out. One of the reasons that I went towards wood was because at one point, I couldnt ship guns and grenades anymore. If the X-ray machine saw that shape, theyd just send it back, and it was a big hassle. 

I was talking with my mom about this and she said, What about deconstructed guns? I was in Pennsylvania then, and I started seeing these incomplete wooden guns. I realised I could work with these. Then, I started finding old, wooden batons. There was this idea of force, control and violence. It all kind of stemmed from there and just escalated. It has to do with this idea of the worker. Coal miners, construction workers and making a living wage. Theres been a lot of stuff going on in the last couple of years in America, and all over the world, regarding the economy and how peoples lives have changed; health, education and having a basic quality of life. Taxes. The prison system. All these things. Just the levels of stress and tension on people. Working night and day, year after year and for what? What do we really have at the end of the day? Our governments have become bullies, taking everything that they can by force. On a personal level, I was feeling it myself with my friends and family. These things really took their toll. Then war and nationalism entered the conversation. I also saw soldiers as workers. Most people do not necessarily want to go to war. The places where they recruit people are in poor neighbourhoods. They go there with promises of education or money for their families. All these things started coming into play, and they really began to play their part in this series. 

-Your work is currently exhibited at the Centre Pompidou through 2016. Where else can our readers see your work in 2014 and beyond? 

I am having a solo show at Carbon 12 Dubai in November 2014, where I am showing 206 Bones and Confessions. This will be the first time Ill be able to properly show these series outside of Art Dubai and Art Brussels. 



 

sara rahbar 
QUESTRE/by Sonja Steppan/2013

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-If you were to ask your future self one question, what would make you most curious to know?

Did it all work out in the end? 

-What is the most precious item you inherited? 

When we escaped from Iran we lost everything along the way. But my mother hid and held on to 2 of her gold bangles and she gave them to me recently, they mean the world to me and I never take them off. They are a constant reminder of my mothers great strength, determination and love. I wear them on my right arm where I have my tattoo that is another reminder for me always, and dedicated to my brother Arash, from a distance you glistened and shone. 

-Have you ever stolen from anybody? 

Only from myself, its a bad habit and I really have to stop doing it. 

-When lucid dreaming, how does your storyline evolve? 

My house has turned into a castle, a huge palace, and as I am running through it, I keep opening door after door and discovering that it is so much bigger than I could have ever imagined. 

 

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Sara Rahbars Swarming reflects human conditions

Gulf News/By Jyoti Kalsi/2014

Artist Sara Rahbars family moved from Iran to the US when she was five years old. In her earlier work she has dealt with issues of identity and the traumatic memories of violence and displacement that still affect her. Rahbars third solo show in Dubai, Swarming, also has autobiographical undertones; but it goes beyond personal concerns to address the general human condition in our times. The show speaks about the anxiety and loss of control felt by ordinary people as they toil ceaselessly to deal with the demands and constraints of contemporary life. 

Rahbar has a huge collection of workers tools and war related objects bought from flea markets, used goods stores, Army and Navy stores and families of war veterans in Iran and the US, which she uses to create her unusual artwork. In this show she has used farming equipment, police batons, old weapons, shoe forms, butchers hooks and carpentry tools to make a series of interesting installations. The series, titled Confessions of a Sinner pays tribute to the hard work and sacrifice of soldiers and other ordinary workers in our society. In another series, titled 206 Bones, (referring to the number of bones in the human body) Rahbar has used casts of her hands, legs and head to create bronze sculptures that talk about our aspirations and apprehensions, while questioning our idea of success and progress. By combining memory, ideological symbols, and body parts, the artist highlights the fact that our minds and bodies have become like tools, worn out with the daily grind of our relentless pursuit of individual desires and collective progress. 

The word swarming makes you think of a group of bees or wasps about to attack. The army also uses the term military swarming for an imminent attack. The thousands of protesters who came out on the streets in recent times also reminded me of a buzzing swarm ready to attack. So, the title of this show reflects the tension and extreme anxiety of seeing a swarm coming to attack you, Rahbar says. 

The tools and the body parts in my artwork refer to people who work very hard in difficult jobs for poor compensation. They are trapped in a vicious cycle with no scope for improvement in their quality of life. Many of the tools in these artworks are used to hold things in place or exert pressure. Like the bullets, batons and other weapons in my pieces they evoke the idea of control and of trying to hold things together. And the recurring presence of wheels alludes to the endless vicious cycle that ordinary people get sucked into by social and political systems, including revolutions that are also controlled by hidden forces. The objects in my organic yet precise arrangements are all old, used, beat up, scratched and dirty because life is imperfect and messy, she adds. 

Rahbars bronze sculptures are more personal. I decided to use this medium for the first time because I felt the need to move away from found objects and make pieces that are more intimate. My work is about my feelings and my life, so it had to be my body. I tend to curl my toes when I am tense; and I have cast my legs with the feet in that particular pose to convey the general feeling of anxiety that pervades in our society today, she says. 

The titles of her sculptures offer insights into the thoughts and emotions behind every piece of work. A piece featuring two hands with one desperately gripping the other is poignantly called Stay. This piece is about holding onto something that is gone or slipping out of our control. It is based on my own relationships; but it is essentially about the memories that traumatise and paralyse us, tying us down to the past and preventing us from moving on. On another level, this piece alludes to the images from Syria and Palestine of people being pulled out from the rubble and orphaned children traumatised by their experiences of war and death, Rahbar says. 

Similarly, Do You Love Me, features two hinged legs chained together and placed on the floor. These disembodied legs can be moved in different ways, but the distance they can travel is controlled by the chains. The feeling of violence and anxiety is inherent in this piece. And the hinged legs also evoke the feeling that we have all become like machines, working incessantly in the futile pursuit of happiness and love. The work reflects my own pain of never feeling loved in my relationships; but it also questions the idea of the need to be loved or to belong, the artist says. In other works such as Championship, Victor and I will shelter you the artist questions the logic of war, the idea of winning a war and the general obsession with being number one regardless of the physical and mental cost. 

The competition to keep doing better and the fear of being left behind in the race has made us like machines who keep working to build things that sustain us but also destroy us in the end. We need to stop and think about the dreams, anxieties, memories, relationships and sociopolitical systems that affect our choices and actions, Rahbar says.