Justice for All
BY FEATURED ARTIST: Sara Rahbar
Sara Rahbar, Justice for all, flag #57, flag series, mixed media, 59 x 34 inches, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.
justice for all
SARA RAHBAR / NOV 2020 / ISSUE 3
Separation and belonging have been persistent themes throughout my life. Reflecting this idea, I attach pieces together until they form a solid unit each belonging to the other. My point of entry as a mixed-media artist has been purposing various types of textiles, wood, bronze and collected objects in ways that present different aspects of their inherent physical characteristics, revealing them in unexpected, unseen ways.
I construct my work using collected objects such as, army and military personal memorabilia, flags, tools and various found objects, sewing them onto textiles and attaching them to wood and metal. As the collected objects begin to get larger and heavier the canvases become tougher and more densely constructed until the objects take over and take on a life of their own. Very organically, the work becomes predominantly sculpture, the results carrying both literal and metaphoric weight.
By contesting the division between the realm of memory and the present state, I reference the avant-garde and the left-wing democratic movement as a form of resistance against the logic of our capitalist society. Demonstrating how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and challenges the binaries we continually construct between Self and Other, and between our own primitive and civilized selves.
Sara Rahbar is a contemporary artist born in Tehran, Iran. She left her birthplace during the period of immense upheaval that followed the revolution in Iran and the start of the Iran-Iraq war. While her works had initially explored deeper concepts of nationalism and belonging, her overall artistic practice stems from her personal experience and is largely autobiographical—driven by central ideas of pain, violence, and the complexity of the human condition. Sara has exhibited widely in art institutions including Queensland Museum, Sharjah Art foundation, Venice Biennial, The Centre Pompidou, and Mannheimer Kunstverein. She lives and works in New York.