Nafiseh Emadmostofi
Do it Yourself: Coffins II, 81cm x 101cm
Oil on Canvass
Art is one of the first ways that we get indications of the directions a culture is taking. That is because it is hard to lie with art. Your authenticity is revealed firstly through your technical dexterity. And having invested so much time learning the techniques and processes, what you present becomes a labor of love. You do the very best that you can do.
And images are more primal than words. One can mask meanings and intentions with words, but pictures are more direct.
We have now in Canada (and specifically in Mississauga) artists who have gone through - so far - the exemplary schools that the region have to offer. Even in this era of postmodernism, there are first class traditional schools of painting and drawing available to anyone who wants to attend. Many are at very low cost or even free. Public secondary and post secondary school systems in Ontario have them in their curricula, with skilled art teachers on their staff.
Many times these artists are second generation immigrants who may have been born in Canada or came to the country as very young children. They maneuver through "Canadian" culture with expertise, speak fluent English, and often also their own languages.
They go through the usual rigorous screening systems, first for admissions into these post secondary schools and even secondary schools. For example The Etobcoke School of the Arts is highly selective in admitting its high school students.
Then, as they complete their studies, these artists start their rounds of galleries and museums to submit their works for exhibitions. Some venture out into the commercial world, but that comes much later.
The fascinating thing is the themes they chose to represent. Without fail (view work by students and alumni of Chinese or other ethnic backgrounds at the Ontario College of Art and Design here, or here at the University of Toronto ), their works reference their own cultures. Often there is a sense of alienation in their works. And where these works intersect with other cultures, and specifically with white, western culture, there is an amorphous sense of doom. This may be representative of the postmodern era of doom and gloom in art, but this doom and gloom is specifically Chinese, or Indian, or some other ethnic group's where the artists pull from their own cultural vocabularies to represent such worlds through their art.
Multiculturalism has really brought out their unique demons.
But there is another interesting layer. While each culture represents its imagery, in its own way, with unapologetic references to its "identity," whites are not allowed to do so. For if they do, then they are channeling into their "oppressor" history, their legacy of "racism" where they prevented the ancestors of these non-whites (some only as far back as 1/2 a generation ago) from participating and fully living in this land. Whites cannot be genuine artists because of the crimes that have been allocated to them. They will only make more of the same art, "alienating" and "oppressive."
What could be further from the truth!
But all these "ethnics" cannot be true artists either, for their inauthentic methods of "copying" their oppressors.
So where does that leave us in the world of art?
We get to watch the burning of the Western tradition, painted in the immaculate tradition of Western art.
Nafiseh Emadmostofi channels back to this tradition, having nothing else to emulate. Yet her deepest desire is to see it go up in flames, to vanish, so that she can once again return to her true, authentic self, her true authentic art.
The Art Gallery of Mississauga will exhibit Emadmostofi's works in the XIT-RM from June 29-August 27 2017 under the title Burning Desire. She will also participate in an "Artist Talk" on June 29, the opening night.
What is Emadmostofi's burning desire? I have answered that question above: "...her deepest desire is to see [this Western culture] go up in flames, to vanish, so that she can once again return to her true, authentic self, her true authentic art."
The gallery's communication describes Emadmostofi's work thus:
Nafiseh Emadmostofi’s bold figural paintings offer up representative and allegorical examinations of ideological conflict, and the power of art to inspire protest, incite censure, and yet also speak to a collective (and contested) desire to envision a better world.And we get this "better world" after we get rid of the "old" and "corrupt" one.
There is nothing more exhilarating than utopian visions.