Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani are twin sisters, known primarily for their collaborative works of art: multimedia as well as performance. I first met them in September 2016 at the opening of their exhibition, Projecting Her, at the Adelson Galleries Boston.
The exhibition was one of the most outstanding I've seen in a number of years by any young and emerging contemporary artists. Approximately a dozen paintings were exhibited, some quite large. They had worked in tandem on each and were also the subject of each. Videos were projected onto the paintings: curtains in a light breeze, legs walking. The end result was very evocative and thought-provoking, but rather than trying to describe the visual experience, here's a short video produced by WBUR earlier this year:
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| Asleep Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani 2016, oil on wood panel with video projection, 5 x 13 feet Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Since that exhibition, they have created performance pieces at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the work pictured above, Asleep, has been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts. Significant achievements.
Six months after that opening, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from them that concluded: "... we wanted to see if you are interested in doing a painting from both of our portraits as twins. Hope you want to."
They came to the studio and the idea intrigued me. The painting was not being commissioned; they simply wanted to be within the world that exists in my paintings. Normally, I would have declined, preferring the freedom of working without outside constraints or concerns, but swayed by the compliments and especially by the challenge, I agreed. Then I took almost a year before coming up with a composition that I liked, of them in their studio.
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| 2018. pencil on graph paper, 7 1/2" x 9 1/2" |
Since much of their work seems to be about identity and the boundaries between individuals, I liked the ambiguity of this composition: not defining which sister is which, adding the reflection of one face in the window, and leaving unclear whether a mirror, poster, or painting is being held up.
A year later - about the average time I take between having an initial idea to getting to the easel - an oil painting is now in progress:
A year later - about the average time I take between having an initial idea to getting to the easel - an oil painting is now in progress:
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| oil on linen, 30" x 38" |
Beautiful composition, Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThe composition is so smart. Love it!
ReplyDeleteI love the complexity of this work. There is so much unfolding in the composition.
ReplyDeleteThere is an honesty and purity in the images, yet at the same time a sense of the unknowable in the relationship of the sisters. That sense is wonderfully realized in the various reflections. Or perhaps it is only unknowable to us. For them everything in their relationship is knowable. My first thought was not that one sister was holding up anything, but rather that the subtle movement of her hand was inviting the other to look at herself in the mirror. Of course, by extension, she is also inviting herself to look.
I look forward to seeing the finished piece.
- Gerry