پراکسیس

Soheila Dizgoli is a painter and poet whose work explores the representation of pain, suffering, and inner erosion. In her painting series, through symbolic and figurative expression, she visually examines the contemporary human being in relation to their environment. In her poetry, within a mysterious and surreal atmosphere, she addresses themes such as loneliness, anxiety, and dread.

She believes that her works deal with fundamental aspects of life—such as time, erosion, and impermanence—and she seeks to reflect the complexity and confusion of contemporary existence. Among her series, including Slope of Pain, Limbo, Lead Cross, The Divine Comedy, and Madness, she has explored painterly studies of themes ranging from war events, to moments before death, to emotional representations of nature.

As a painter, Dizgoli has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, often portraying isolated human figures. In her paintings, color takes precedence over line; the boundaries between figures and their surroundings are not defined by contour, but rather by the gradual dissolution of colors. Among her expressive techniques are scratching, interweaving, immersing figures, exaggerated elongation, and the erosion of hands into heads. In her most recent series, Madness—paintings inspired by the poetry of Mohammad Bagher Kallahi—Soheila arrives at an abstract expression of pain, isolation, and entanglement. Still, the expressive technique of scratching remains present, symbolizing a form of chronic suffering.

As a poet, she adopts a simple yet visual and surreal style, aiming to convey her mental and emotional states. Her poems create an inward, enigmatic atmosphere that reflects psychological erosion, anxiety, solitude, and dread—but they are not confined to these emotions. Through sudden and sometimes violent imagery—such as wounded bodies, veins, necks, knives, prisons, death, and loss—she simultaneously depicts personal and collective experiences. In her poetry, silence, brief personal narratives, and repetition serve as tools to evoke suffocation, danger, and futility. By intertwining personal experience with collective memory, she creates a space that not only mirrors individual suffering but also reflects violence, repression, and despair in contemporary society. Her poetry thus stands at the intersection of personal testimony, visual poetry, and an existential interpretation of life.

Dizgoli’s artistic career reveals two distinct dimensions. On the one hand, she has been deeply engaged in cultural and social activities, including teaching, gallery direction, curatorial work, and organizing literary and artistic gatherings. On the other hand, her works portray isolation and chronic personal pain. In other words, while her cultural activities demonstrate a social concern, her art reflects an existential perspective on individual responsibility and the suffering of life in solitude. For this reason, her works can be seen as fragments of the turbulent lived experience of individuals in today’s Iran. Part of this suffering undoubtedly stems from the oppressive socio-political and economic structures in place; yet another part emerges from her modern artistic perspective—her pursuit of modernist ideals such as subjective realism and the rupture from tradition. Rather than offering answers, she raises questions; instead of constructing meaning, she challenges it. It is within this very framework that futility, isolation, and pain emerge in her work.

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Hafezeh (Elaheh) Javadzadeh Tabatabaei is a painter and art instructor with over two decades of experience in the visual arts. In addition to participating in numerous group exhibitions across various cities, she has held a solo exhibition titled The Flight of Time. As an educator, she teaches techniques in oil painting, illumination (tazhib), and figurative forms, and she is a member of the official Iranian Society of Miniature Artists. Her work is marked by a distinct attention to the fusion of Iranian and Roman artistic traditions.

In her first series, the artist combined elements such as sky clouds and birds’ wings to explore themes like flow, movement, and growth. In her second collection, she developed a unique visual language by merging two distinct pictorial elements. Drawing on oil painting techniques and inspired by classical Western portraiture, she places human forms and figures within the intricate context of Persian illumination. Hafezeh sees this approach as a dialogue between two ancient visual traditions—a space where differing aesthetic systems meet, historical and cultural boundaries blur, and new visual experiences and layers of meaning emerge. She believes this visual fusion offers a potential response to the broader question of cultural interaction and the coexistence of artistic heritages.

Her style of expression can be described as metaphorical, clear, and accessible—shaped by a desire to bridge diverse visual traditions. Her deep interest in both Roman and Iranian cultures is evident throughout her work: in the fluttering wings of birds, in Roman figures, and in blue skies, clouds, and the ornamental motifs reminiscent of Persian illumination.

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Neda Azimi is a painter with extensive experience in various mediums. Over two decades of her artistic career, she has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions across different countries and has also taught art in renowned institutions. Up until 2021, her paintings explored themes such as nature, trees, women, sedative drugs, and mood-enhancing hormones.

In the "Sedative" series, her paintings are presented in an abstract manner. The artist attempts to blend forms into one another through harmony, rendering the line ineffective as a boundary-defining element. Abstract volumes emerge through layering colors and glazes, evoking foggy, hazy, and dreamlike spaces, symbolizing the calming effects of sedative drugs.

In the "A Tree Has Grown in My House" series, she portrays metamorphosed forms of the female body. The figures, placed in varied contexts, resist realistic representation and allude to taboo issues surrounding women.

In her exhibition statements, the artist draws a connection between the abstract spaces in her paintings and the calming effects of sedative drugs and the happiness-inducing serotonin hormone. She believes her work represents an attempt to break free from theoretical articulation in favor of a commitment to representational forms. For Neda, painting is an act of simplification, a conscious detachment, and a transcendence—a creative experience unbound by specific time or place.

In the "Serotonin" series, the tree becomes her sole connection to life—a natural element that serves as a pillar and stimulates serotonin production. Created during the pandemic, these paintings represent a shift for the artist, who previously spent seven years painting directly in nature. This new series reflects her internal visualization of nature.

Neda Azimi’s focus in the "Serotonin" and "Sedative" series is deeply personal. Her approach is not one of confrontation but rather an intentional turning away and letting go, in pursuit of inner peace imbued with a mystical quality. She sees theoretical articulation as a disruptive force to the ideas and emotions she deliberately chooses to overlook. Instead of addressing social issues, her work adopts a spiritual perspective reminiscent of the early 20th-century pioneers of abstract art, who turned away from a tumultuous world grappling with war. Similarly, she rejects comprehensible, figurative forms in her work.

Following her installation "Prosthetic Loves", Neda experienced a turning point in her approach to women’s issues and gender equality. The feedback from male viewers, who struggled to grasp the realities of women’s experiences around motherhood, prompted her to adopt a more feminist perspective in her latest series.