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Shirin Gallery NY is pleased to present “Letters,” a solo exhibition by Shadi Yousefian, from October 24 to November 28, 2013. Through a ritualistic process of cutting, soaking, gluing, and pinning, Yousefian composes the fragments of letters mailed to and received from distant loved ones. “Letters,” adheres to minimalistic and repetitive formations, preserving these emotionally-laden exchanges while obscuring their content and piercing their pages. The works that com-prise “Letters,” are at once an index and abstraction of the intimacies shared through splintered correspondence.

By manipulating written communication as a sculptural medium, Yousefian manifests her transna-tional bonds as a tangible material that bears the traces of physical change. Shirin Gallery pres-ents “Letters,” during a time in which the handwritten note has become a rarified form of commu-nication; yet remains a powerful means of effecting potentially transformative connection among individuals and nations. In the moment of its exhibition, “Letters,” presents a timely investigation into the medium’s potential to shift social relations within personal and geo-political landscapes.

Shadi Yousefian is a contemporary photographer and mixed-media artist whose work investi-gates issues of transnational identity and cross-cultural belonging at a personal and social scale. She conveys her experience emigrating from Iran to the United States at the age of 16 while re-flecting upon commonalities among immigrant experiences around the world. Yousefian’s work is process-oriented and employs a wide variety of media. Despite her academic background in photography, Yousefian engages the medium as a process of self-expression rather than a means of representation. During early experimentations with photography, Yousefian cre-ated collages from film negatives, which she exposed on paper and developed into final prints. Yousefian has since expanded her practice to include larger and more sculptural works that com-bine photographic prints with other materials such as wood panels, glue, canvas, and light boxes. Yousefian moves beyond the boundaries of the photographic medium with recent series such as

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October 24 – November 28, 2013Opening: Thursday, October 24, 6:00 pmMonday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:30 pm

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“Letters,” and “Memories,” which mark a formal turn from the spontaneous and expressionistic style of earlier works to a more meticulous and repetitive minimalism.

Yousefian received a Bachelors of Fine Arts (2003) and a Masters of Fine Arts (2006) from San Francisco State University. In 2005, she was offered a Murphy & Cadogan Fellowship in the Arts for her exhibition in the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. In 2004 and 2005, she received International Photo Awards from the Lucie Foundation. She has exhibited widely in California, with past shows including “East of the West,” SOMArts Gallery; “Theory of Survival,” The Lab; “Celluloid: Film & Photography Exhibition,” Gallery One.

Shirin Art Center is an organization committed to creating an international context for the dynam-ic range of contemporary artistic practices within Iran and its surrounding regions. With branches in New York and Tehran, Shirin Art Center exists as a platform for curatorial and pedagogical projects that foster artistic activity and exchange among emerging and established artists. Shirin Gallery NY is located on W 25th St. in the Chelsea Gallery District. Shirin Gallery NY furthers Shirin Art Center’s commitment to cultural exchange by exhibiting the Middle East’s rich artistic history within the United States. Shirin Gallery NY presents a critical and socially aware perspective by exhibiting works that push the boundaries of contemporary art as well as interna-tional perceptions of the Middle East.

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After immigrating to the United States from Iran at the age of 16, I sought a means of keeping the close relationships I left behind present and alive. Writing letters was the most common form of in-timacy, and between 1995 and 1997 I kept up enthusiastic and dedicated correspondences. These letters became extended and diaristic exchanges, often arriving in thick packages as long as 70 or 80 pages that meticulously detailed the events of several days or weeks at a time. My loved ones and I wove extended webs of dialog that tied the mundane details of our daily lives within small dramas and love affairs, nostalgic memories, and hopes for the future. ///// Nearly ten years after my correspondences subsided, I revisited all the letters I had saved. Re-reading these relics of intimacy, I came across one particular note relating a piece of upsetting news about a mutual friend’s ill health. This illness was a defining juncture in my friend’s personal history and marked a critical moment in my own life. Yet, reading this note, I was surprised to realize that the particular details written out in my friend’s hand were unfamiliar to me. I had completely forgotten the actual event itself, even as its emotional weight continued to texture our personal and collective narra-tives. ///// Revisiting the letters prompted me to understand them as objects that materialize the intimacies grown over these years of handwritten exchanges. The contents of my correspondence were so deeply layered within hundreds of overlapping pages that their temporality remains an unordered flow – I could not remember what happened when, even as my own sense of identity and belonging had, in part, taken form through in the affective exchanges. In an effort to chart the shifts within my personal and social landscape, I began to physically redact their specific details according to intuitive, ritualistic methods. I cut out all legible words with fastidious precision and soaked fragments in organic substances. After working with letters saved from friends, I wished to see the letters I had sent them in turn. To my surprise, I received many back and subjected them to the same ritualistic and expressive processes. Where my friends’ letters were mostly impas-sioned and joyful, my own reflected the sadness and strain of my early years in the United States. I manifested this melancholic distance by presenting my own letters bare and unstained, where I animated those from friends by staining their pages with the wine and tea we once shared. This process by which “Letters,” took form was both a baptism ritual and an exorcism, as I abstracted the letters’ informational content into an architecture that manifested a new experience of close-ness. ///// While “Letters,” began as a ritual by which I sought a sense of catharsis and healing within the ambiguity of physical and emotional distance, the process yielded formal works of art. Preserved as sculptural collages on wooden boards, “Letters,” manifests a diffuse network of re-lationships as multi-faceted as they are fragmented without fixing them to deterministic identity or definition. The series plays with our subjective experiences of the past by alluding to events in their absence, collaging memory and meaning to repair and reconstruct the lack sustained over emotional distance into new significance. By piercing, staining, and manipulating this written correspondence, “Letters,” effects an intimate, indexical relation between my past and present; and shapes the intangible mesh of lives entwined across a distance into an architecture of lived experience.

Statement

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Untitled,25 in x 25 inMixed Media2012

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Untitled,48 in x 48 inMixed Media2011

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Untitled,25 in x 25 inMixed Media2013

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Untitled,48 in x 48 inMixed Media2009

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Untitled,25 in x 25 inMixed Media2006

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Untitled,48 in x 36 inMixed Media2012

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EDUCATION2006 MFA, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Califor-nia ///// 2003 BFA, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California

EXHIBITIONS2011 “Overruled,” Performed in Shirin Neshat’s play commis-sioned by Performa 11. Cedar Lake, New York, New York ///// 2008 “East of the West,” Somarts Gallery, San Francisco, Califor-nia ///// 2008 “After the Revolution: Contemporary Photogra-phy from California and Tehran,” San Francisco Arts Commis-sion Gallery at City Hall, San Francisco, California ///// 2008 “Theory of Survival,” The Lab, San Francisco, California ///// 2007 “Celluloid,” Gallery One, San Francisco, California ///// 2006 “Moving Mountains,” Red Ink Studios, San Francisco, Cali-fornia ///// 2006 “Master of Fine Arts Exhibition 2006,” Fine Arts Gallery (SFSU), San Francisco, California ///// 2005 “Murphy & Cadogan Fellowship Award Exhibition,” San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California ///// 2005 “reP-resent,” Oliver Arts Center, California College of Arts, Oakland, California ///// 2005 “Of Past and Present: A Collaborative Ex-change,” Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California ///// 2005 “Celebrating the Works of Courbet,” Legion of Honor (The 11th Annual College Day Event), San Francisco, California ///// 2004 “15th Annual Stillwell Show,” Fine Arts Gallery (SFSU), San Francisco, California ///// 2004 “The Beginning,” Art People Gallery, San Francisco, California ///// 2004 “Self-Portraits,” SOAS Library (School of Oriental & African Studies), London ///// 2004 “The 30TH Annual Juried Competition,” Masur Mu-seum of Art, Monroe, Louisiana ///// 2004 “Emergence 2004,” Student Center Art Gallery (SFSU), San Francisco, California ///// 2004 “One World, Many Faiths,” SomArts Bay Gallery, San Francisco, California ///// 2003 “Figuratively Speaking,” Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, New York ///// 2003 “Zydeco, Tributoa: Jean-Michel Basquiat,” Art-Cubic, Barcelona, Spain ///// 2002 “Inter-vention: A Cause for Action,” Student Center Art Gallery (SFSU), San Francisco, California ///// 2002 “13th Annual Stillwell Show,” Fine Arts Gallery (SFSU), San Francisco, California

AWARDS2005 Murphy & Cadogan Fellowship in the Fine Arts ///// 2005 International Photo Award (The Lucie Award 2005): Third Place Nude Category, New York, New York ///// 2004 International Photo Award (The Lucie Award 2004): Third Place Portrait Cat-egory, New York, New York ///// 2002 13th Annual Stillwell Show: Best of Photography Award, San Francisco, California

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Shadi Yousefian was born in Tehran, Iran in 1978 and moved to the United States when she was sixteen. She received both her Bachelor's (2003) and Master's (2006) of Fine Arts in photography from San Francisco State University. Shadi's work speaks mainly of personal and social issues of contemporary life, especially cultural identity. She expresses her experience as an Iranian immigrant in the United States, addressing issues that also reflect the universal experience of immi-grants around the world.

Despite her academic background in photography, in many of her works such as her "Self-Portraits" series, Shadi has merely explored photography as a medium for self expression rather than photographic representation of her subject matter. Work-ing directly with film negatives, she has created "negative collages" from which her final photographic prints are made.

Later, Shadi began to move more and more towards using mix media and combin-ing photographic prints with other materials such as wood panels, glue, canvas, and light boxes to create larger and more sculptural pieces.

In her most current works such as "Letters" and "Memories" series, while her sub-ject matter has not significantly changed, in terms of form, Shadi has moved away in almost the opposite direction from her spontaneous expressionistic approach toward a carefully planned minimalistic and repetitive approach.

SHADI YOUSEFIAN

415.533.7364shadi@shadiyousefian.com

www.shadiyousefian.com

Shirin Art Gallery NY“Letters,” by Shadi Yousefian

Gallery PresidentShirin Partovi Tavakolian

Gallery DirectorAva Ansari

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