Check out Sanaz Haghani Nouri’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sanaz Haghani Nouri.

Sanaz, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
My work reflects the women in my life. They are the waves along the shore, always there sometimes gentle, sometimes furious.
I am from Iran, a country full of colors and poems, a country with a history layered with Gods and blood but it is also a country tough with the scars left by time, a land where peace is fleeting. It is a place where the war, waged for thousands of years, leaves a taste as familiar as the tea we sip.

I was born during the Islamic revolution in Iran and grew up during the eight-year war with Iraq. My childhood memories are full of contrast between different cultures from the Shah Regime and the Islamic Regime. The mysterious veiled Muslim Iranian women that captured my attention since I was a little girl continue to flap around the edges of my mind. Going out with my mom and seeing these dark clothes everywhere, pressed in on me even then. I grew up playing with these forms in my subconscious. Maybe the idea behind my works is finding myself. When I say, myself, I mean discovering my concerns as both a human being and as a woman. I am trying to find a way to echo my concerns about the women I continue to listen to from 7,000 miles away, and I wonder what I can learn from these women’s stories.

I want to show the level of darkness in women’s lives. I wanted to show how hard it is to be forced to hide all your emotions and beliefs, and how this can affect your life, causing you to live like a ghost, without spirit, being coerced and controlled. I tried to give these women a voice, to make a remarkable piece of work to explore the identity of women in relation to society. I attempt to address the theme of the alienation of women in repressed Muslim societies.

My work focuses on women who changed their lives despite their limitations and their life situations that makes them unaware of their values as a human being. I want to tell the story of their lives. I experienced the same situation, the darkness, and repression all around me, and because of that, I have the vocabulary to explore the emotional and mental state of these women as well as the grindingly spectral atmosphere surrounding those harsh attitudes. Inspired by the dark colors of the clothing that the Iranian women must wear, my intention is to show the figure of a woman in that dress.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am a printmaking and book arts major and my works are about the situation of women in my country. I am from Iran. I was born in one of the darkest periods in Iran’s history. War, revolution, sanctions, and many other issues happened when I grew up. I grew up as a woman who was forgotten, who was lost between all different political, cultural, religious and social issues. Gender is so bold in the middle east, it patriarchy got bolder after the Islamic revolution, controlling female appearance and mobility.

Growing up in this kind of environment forced me to be more sensitive about my gender and my rights. I want to explain the experience of being a woman in that area. All my images concentrate on the vail, and the form of women’s bodies in that dark and thick form. However, I am also exploring the relationship between these women and their beliefs, their culture, or maybe the place that they grew up in.

As an artist, I feel the gift that I was luckily given. I feel the power of art as the most powerful language that can cross borders and picture the darkness of minorities’ lives in the world as well as the beauty of human desire to overcome the limitations that are imposed by evil powers around the world. I believe this power should be shared with others and especially with the young generation to expand this language to the world. As an artist who realized the value of art as the most powerful and international language that can be used to express thoughts, feelings, and concerns about dark aspects of human life, I feel I must expand this language to the world. I can help the young generation to know about their talents and abilities in art and use that as a voice of their society or each other or minorities.

What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
There is no limitation to be creative or to make changes in our societies. I learned to hide everything about myself. I learned to hide my emotion, my body, and my voice. Now through my artworks, I learn to talk, to be voice, and I learn to talk about my experiences.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Through my website: sanazhaghani.com or I can make an appointment for studio visit.

Contact Info:

• Address: 125 Jenning Mill Parkway, Apt 10204, Athens, GA
• Website: sanazhaghani.com
• Phone: 4064513658
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanazhaghanin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sanaz.haghani.9
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SanazHaghani

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