Farah Ameneh Hazaveh

Approaching this project, I decided to focus on the collective emotion that memory invokes rather than individual moments of time. This piece touches on the grief caused by political warfare in the Middle East, while also commenting on self image acceptance throughout Western ignorance. This piece begins as styrofoam, reshaped with tin foil to depict a higher nose bridge and facial structure. Incased in paper maché, instead of sanding any imperfections away, I used a thick body acrylic to fill in any gaps. This is direct representation of emotions being “painted over”. The focal point of the work is the pomegranates spilling out from the “mind”. Pomegranates are not only the national fruit of Iran, but a symbol of life and hope in entirety. In Islam, they represent the beauty of creation, with the seeds being a connection to heaven. The fruit of paradise. I used blue glass beads and fishing line, and strung them through the eye, tears frozen in time. The sculpture sits atop an empty Sohan tin, representing the absence of family.