NINA RASTGAR | Force & Fear

NINA RASTGAR | Force & Fear

“I aim to use my art against the atmosphere of violence toward women, minorities, and nature. I try to create a sense of solidarity and invoke a sense of increasingly peaceful coexistence.”

This series represents the significant stigma in social patterns regarding how married and divorced women are viewed in Iran.
The Iranian society regards divorce as a failure of the woman to uphold her religious and cultural obligations successfully. Despite women’s legal access to the divorce process, it is a subject that is still frowned upon by most. This goes to show how the holy matrimony itself is a reflection of women’s traditional role.
From my experience, I am familiar with how women are harmed more than men by the complex legal process under the Sharia and how determining who’s at fault for the break up of the marriage unfairly impacts women.
Conservative traditions and religious beliefs encourage married couples to make a longstanding, unbreakable tie.
This custom within a patriarchal society creates a severe power imbalance, leading to unfair treatment of divorced women in the courtroom and in society at large. They are often viewed as disposable and deplorable.
The term, given meaning ‘widowed’, is also used unironically to describe divorcées.
I was raised in an environment where the visual form comes from the male gaze and binary experiences. My lens has been dramatically impacted within this context. Therefore, growing up as a second-class citizen in a place with primarily homophobic and misogynistic laws based on patriarchal principles has compelled me to include my experiences in collaboration with Mojtaba Akbari’s views as a photographer and cinematographer.

ABOUT NINA RASTGAR

I am an MFA student at the School of visual art and Design at the University of Carolina, specializing in Studio art, and a Graduate instructional assistant at Intro of Jewelry. My research emphasizes conceptual strength. Apart from painting and sculpturing, I have conceptualized my body as a material to perform and make more interaction between art and society.
I was born and raised in northern Iran amongst an ethnic group of Gilaki-speaking natives residing in Gilan’s green and lush province, full of nature, colors, and handicrafts, and because of the climate and fertile soil. My father was also a photographer and documentary director. After my father’s death, I studied in an applied science field, namely agricultural engineering, because of the climate and fertile soil. Besides, agriculture has been one of the most important and oldest jobs for women in this region, which helps me to support myself and my family financially. During my education, I continued my passion for art to express my feeling through nature.
I grew up in a religiously conservative country with deeply rooted cultural norms where a visual form comes from male and binary experiences that women and minorities are held down in silence in a box, which leads to part of society’s roles being eliminated.
I aim to use multimedia art against the atmosphere of violence towards women and minorities and nature to create a sense of solidarity and invoke a sense of increasingly peaceful coexistence. So, my personal experiences have merged with the economic, social, cultural, and political issues, creating humor and ambiguous messages and raising others’ questions through my artwork to develop democratic content when dominant politics interfere with our choice of living. It pushes me to make something through a message, such as making non-verbal conversation through expressing my emotions.
For several years, I have traveled alone and shown my pieces; then, I empathized with artists worldwide who have the same feeling. Through my recent immigration, I have gained a new understanding of being and belonging, and my expanded lens has broadened my thoughts through experiencing a new culture.

“I grew up in a religiously conservative country with deeply rooted cultural norms where a visual form comes from male and binary experiences that women and minorities are held down in silence in a box, which leads to part of society’s roles being eliminated.”

Getting To Know: Nina Rastgar

Art Market Magazine: Please share the background of your photography journey. Did you grow up in a creative environment? What led you to the fine art photography field?

Nina Rastgar: As I mentioned in my Bio, my father was a documentary photographer and filmmaker;
I went on art trips with him throughout my childhood and adolescence, learning the basics of art from him, simultaneously learning teaching methods, perseverance, and patience from my mother; The atmosphere in our home was creative. But when he died in a car accident on one of his art trips,
I dedicated my life to being a good observer and finding a meaningful frame. My father opened my eyes through practicing art and observation. As far as I remember, taking photos has been one of my oldest approaches to trigger my imagination and thoughts to reach a good idea for fabricating artwork.

Art Market Magazine: Where your inspiration comes from? Is your artistic style influenced by other photographers or a specific art field?

Nina Rastgar: My works reflect my understanding and awareness of our daily life. I like to bring concepts from psychology, sociology, and political science into my work to gain a better understanding of our experience. One of my inspirations is the German psychologist Erich Fromm. He considers a human primarily as a social being and society as the creation of the individual; thus, the individual is the creation of society, and he recognizes human history as an attempt to achieve freedom. This approach creates visions in my mind, which I can fabricate in a way I like to show. The artist I enjoy the way she works is Sally Mann, she takes photos both in the studio and outdoors, and her frame is meaningful and inspired by their environment.

Art Market Magazine: Tell us about the workflow process from the step of the idea until the outcome. Which program do you use for editing?

Nina Rastgar: I always start with sketching to bring ideas out and wake up my body; it is like meditation—the creative process and making something thoughtful take a long time. After drawing and writing words, I live through the process and consider portraying my vision with different materials. For example, I visualize some familiar sense of my concept for finding a material; it could be a shape, texture, or tensity the material has, sometimes upcycled, an ordinary tool, sound, and solid photos, but it always depends on the concept. So finding material is the challenging stage.
The other factor that I do is collaborate with other artists I like to bring into a project. Each artist comes out with creative expression to expand ideas.

Art Market Magazine: What is the central philosophical idea behind your work?

Nina Rastgar: My mind constantly interprets what’s happening around me. This is how I interpret things through my identity. Through my work, I feel compelled to break social taboos and expose my deepest emotions which call this process a cycle of perception: from experience to realization. It pushes me to make something through a message, such as making non-verbal conversation through expressing my emotions to develop democratic content when dominant politics interfere with our choice of living. Also, I am curious about the commonalities between humans, animals, and plants in our daily life, which grabs my attention to our existence as humans and the responsibilities I like to take. Art is not separate from society, science, and beyond politics and power; it can communicate purposefully with broader audiences through any form.

Art Market Magazine: From your personal journey in film photography, what will be your advice to the young photographer looking for a way of development?

Nina Rastgar: Honestly, I don’t call myself a photographer. I am a conceptual studio artist.
From my experience, going travel can create visual language freely and more broadly, eloquently and diversely, without limits, and cross the traditional border of art in your production. It helps you to use all potential in one frame.

Art Market Magazine: What’s the future hold? Any special exhibitions in the upcoming months?

Nina Rastgar: My resolution for the future is to research topics that excite me. Moreover, I am thrilled about my upcoming exhibition, ‘Being and Belonging,’ at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, by including my compelling works of art (two untitled artists’ sketchbooks). The exhibition will take place from 01 July – 19 November 2023.

See the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #81