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Prior to 2003, I introduced myself to world as Lisa. Lisa was catholic, taught Sunday school during latter adolescence and was absorbed by Puerto Rican and hip-hop culture.
She represented a pseudonym for self-preservation, an attempt in gaining tolerance in an intolerant, blue-collar, suburban neighborhood in Pennsylvania.

In fact, I am the first generation of a Shiite Muslim family of Iranian descent to be born and raised in Philadelphia. Naturally, the delicate balance between bi-culturalism and assimilation felt unequivocal. In frequent travels to Iran, I was intrigued by the way theocratic symbolism functioned when implemented in the public sphere. These reactions have formalized primarily as decorated Amish dresses and hot-iron brandings that stand as signs and symbols, allowing for an exploration in performance based work. At its core, my work investigates the tendency for the human psyche to subscribe to specific categorizations, or subcultures, in response to feelings of ambivalence, uncertainty and/or anxiety.

Using the Amish dress as both a starting point and analogy for the veil in Iran, a combination of cultural iconographies exemplify a narcissistic pledge of allegiance to subcultures that I have espoused. Resurrecting the sense of loyalty and allegiance that drew me to each community, I revive the puritan flag, sanctify a kinship with hip hop culture, collide with centuries old Islamic pattern, revere the commitment to Catholicism, and revisit an adolescent familiarity with brotherhood found in motorcycle and car clubs. These works are a historical account of my past. As a subcomponent to this concept, I have adopted a fractal Islamic pattern commonly found in architectural detailing, used both in old and new construction in Iran. Over the past eight months throughout New York City, I have been offering free, voluntary brandings of patrons’ personal items. Utilizing a propane torch and a custom made branding iron inscribed with this specific pattern, an act of re-contextualization implies the historic representation of cattle branding, a metaphor for migration, reference to mass-marketing and the function of branding identities or logos. Moreover, the possibility is created for a re-invention, producing either a strengthening or erasure of the symbol’s significance. Overall, the experience in wearing the garments, posing as the subject of a photograph in them, and repetitively branding my immediate environment in street based work informs the dialogue between Lisa and Pooneh, uniquely positioning me both inside and outside myself.

I intend to use myself as a case study in analyzing cultural assimilation, and the psychosocial constructs on which it is enshrined. Lisa is exhumed, her ostentatious obsessions learned, stripped and recorded, exposing her ulterior conflicts. Establishing a cyclic exercise in estrangement and subsequent re-engagement between an alter ego and my current self, I explore the concept of theatricality or the comparison between representation of a character and perception. Developing density of signs and sensation in which events and role-playing in social life are laminated, I seize the isolation, deprivation and eventual glorification of an overtly dramatized persona.

Out of Bounds

2007
Mixed Media
122cm x 122cm

Out of Bounds-Detail

2007
Mixed Media
122cm x 122cm

The Boot

2008
Mixed Media

Untitled

2008
Food.

Street Branding 08'

2008
Me, the Hot Iron and a Propane Torch

Puritan Pride

2008
Textile

Puritan Pride

2008
Textile

Puritan Pride-Detail

2008
Textile

La Cosa Nostra

2008
Textile

La Cosa Nostra-Detail

2008
Textile

Street Branding 08'

2008
Branding Iron, Personal Items

Out of Bounds-Part II

2007
Mixed Media
122cm x 122cm

Out of Bounds-Part II

2007
Mixed Media
122cm x 122cm

BK Puritan Pride 1

2008
Photography

BK Puritan Pride 2

2007
Photography

BK Puritan Pride 3

2008
Photography

Hells Angel In Puerto Rico

2008
Photography