ART CITIES: Paris-Hoda Kashiha

Hoda Kashiha studied painting at Tehran University in 2009 and at Boston University in the United States in 2014, which allowed her to win several scholarships in the United States until 2016. During the course of these grants, her figurative art practice has shifted to a more conceptual and abstract approach by developing a disturbed narrative.

By  Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Nathalie Obadia Archive

Hoda Kashiha presents “I am Here, I am not Here”, her first solo exhibition in Paris. In her development of pop painting, ranging from uninhibited Cubism to a cartoonish streak, Hoda Kashiha at first sight presents a joyous selection of works yet they sometimes prove to be dark, strange and full of figurative meaning. She often uses humour to create an intimate connection with the visitor; this mechanism also allows her to tackle serious and sensitive subjects related to the social context and political climate of her home country. For her work the artist says “I create playful paintings, which bounce between real life and one that I imagine. Capturing awkward and dark humor moments, which happen at a glance, are the main theme in my work… I am fascinated by creating art without any filter about whatever crosses my mind. My paintings depicted hostile, but tempered by humor, a common strategy used by people of my country to survive the current social and political system. For this reason, I incorporate pop culture, emojis and comic cartoons, mixed with masterpieces taken from art history to create unique images”. Hoda Kashiha’s paintings nevertheless deal with major contemporary subjects found everywhere such as gender issues and the place of women in society. She recently declared in Maake Magazine that “my paintings do not conform to gender stereotypes. The significance of masculine and feminine, as well as their roles and behaviours, are a fluid concept that is constantly changing among the characters in my paintings”. For Hoda Kashiha, her protagonists are activists without saying a word, they present their differences openly and remain resolutely optimistic. Her works are often constructed like types of collages. Various layers overlap and cut-out shapes appear while images are modified by drawing and by the computer. This way of fragmenting motifs results in an exuberant dynamism and an overflowing vitality, as if the canvases were trying to grab hold of us and shake us. The exhibition is organised chronologically and structured around two major series “I’m Here, I’m not Here” and “In Appreciation of Blinking”. At the heart of this show is “In appreciation of Blinking” (2021), eight large-scale paintings arranged in a line, each canvas fixed to its own metal stand on wheels. Kashiha’s “There Is a Brick Wall, Bricks Are Broken, And She Falls, So Happy Birthday to All” is positioned at the front, a juxtaposition of a hyperreal orchid blossom in full tropical color with an anime diver in black and white. This female silhouette is blurred with spray paint in an enhanced rendering of urgency and speed. The consecutive compositions are covered in a wash of black acrylic that descends lower on each canvas, like a falling curtain. By the last painting, “Back as Black”, the source composition is submerged entirely in black. The words “I’m here, I’m not here” are taken from a set of recent works. Hoda Kashiha repeats the same motif of a woman who is joyous to the point of exhaustion. In every painting, the body is covered by a red mark, a black shape or is misshapen. This set of works shows us how we can be erased, executed or censored by a external power and by death. It also questions our ability to believe in the existence of anything or anyone: if we cannot see it, then that ‘thing’ does not exist. Self-supporting paintings, In “Appreciation of Blinking” work in a similar way. For this installation of 8 canvases, Hoda Kashiha observes the inevitable phenomenon of the blinking of eyes. Alternating between blackness and a world of color, she captures paradoxical moments and feelings of our everyday experience: love and death, jealousy and fulfilment, torture and happiness. A look, a pair of eyes, a confrontation between subject and spectator, these are omnipresent in her works, as if the works were scrutinising and sounding out the visitors, or as if we were always spied upon in the contemporary world. Are we not always followed by our telephones, and recorded by the GAFA Big Four – the giants of the Internet? The digital world and social networks also provide great inspiration for the artist: pixelated images as in retro-gaming rub shoulders with emoticon shapes – little stylised graphic representations that symbolise an emotion.

Photo: Hoda Kashiha, I am Here, I am not Here (diptyque), 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 2 canvas of 150 x 120 cm (59 1/16 x 47 1/4 in), © Hoda Kashiha, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Info: Galerie Nathalie Obadia, rue du Cloître Saint-Merri, Paris, France, Duration: 10/9-29/10/2022, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.nathalieobadia.com/