Mona Aghababaee

Esfahan, Iran
Residency: May-June 2012

About the Artist:
Mona Aghababaee is an artist who lives and works in Iran. Most of her works are based on historical events and social issues in her homeland. She uses different mediums to explore new possibilities for her challenges in human and gender. Abstraction in some of her work is a means of transformation to educe hidden meaning through allusion.

Mona has received a MA in Art from the Art university of Tehran. She has taught at the Esfahan, Bozorgmehr and Sepehr Art Universities in Esfahan. She has participated in more than fifteen group exhibitions in Iran, Australia, and England. In 2009, she has achieved the Damon Courtney Memorial Young Sculpture Prize for her sculpture in Sydney, Australia. She participated in the Sixth National Biennial of Sculpture of Tehran in 2011 and the Urban Sculpture Biennial at the Barg Gallery in 2010.

Artist Statement:
“The Mind in Exile” is based on my experience of living in different country, a residency in New York State. The differences between people who live in the same time in different parts of the world are astonishing to me. Most of the Iranian people are living in the frames that are made by themselves. It seems that because of the severe limitations that are set by the Iranian government, people are used to living with restrictions that strip them of their individuality. BY using mirror in the piece, I explore notions of individuality and the self. Geometric mirrored mosaics in traditional Islamic architecture are special and are used in sacred places like graves of Imams as well as used frequently in funerals. In this piece, I investigate the relationship/tension that occurs between the loss of Iranian individuality, reflections of self, and death.