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Mojgun
Bakhtiary
“An
Unguarded
Moment
of
Gravity”
Roiling
masses
on
the
verge
of
an
impending
awakening
are
lost
in
trance
in a
gravitational
field;
people
in a
revolutionary
upheaval
suddenly
come
to a
halting
stop,
drop
all
their
distant
dreams
to
the
instant
pull
of a
charismatic
personality,
suffused
with
an
artificial
daze,
to a
droning
monologue
that
blocks
all
dialogue,
that
imbues
them
with
an
intoxicating
forgetfulness
by
which
all
attempts
at
retrieving
memory
becomes
a
futile
and
abrasive
chore.
Dispirited
Perspectives
is
Mojgun
Bakhtiari’s
latest
collection.
Committed
to
her
painterly
craft,
she
pictures
and
documents
contemporary
history
with
lapidary
exactitude;
innumerable
crosshatches
on
canvas
have
called
for
long
hours
of
work,
of
contemplation
and
meditation;
time
enough
to
ponder
nameless
individuals
that
have
made
history
but
whose
contributions
have
gone
unnoted.
Although
for
Mojgun
Bakhtiaryi
painting
has
an
introspective
and
healing
quality,
it
is
also
a
way
to
take
the
pulse
of
the
times,
becoming
cognizant
of
the
official
lexicon
of
power
and
signals
that
power
structures
emit.
Her
lived
experience
and
social
sensitivities
make
her
aware
of
the
cooption
of
meaning
and
reversal
of
ideals,
their
corruption,
distortion,
and
redirection,
and
she
regards
these
as
keywords
to
understand
her
surrounding
–
vacillation
between
big
hopes
and
bigger
disappointments
chafing
the
soul
and
fogging
the
vista
of
reform
in
the
political
sphere
and
making
it
impossible
to
imagine.
Much
like
some
of
her
previous
collections,
“flower”
plays
a
central
role,
imbued
with
personality,
whose
faithful,
detailed
depiction
is
true
to
the
genus
but
its
presence
on
canvas
is
not
limited
to
its
taxonomical,
decorative,
or
symbolic
significance.
Flower,
here,
is a
living
organism
extending
its
roots
beneath
the
earth
and
is
in
marked
contrast
to
human
forms,
thus
playing
a
fundamental
role
in
the
semantic
and
visual
structure
of
the
work,
much
like
a
character
(and
not
an
accessory)
in a
drama.
All
preconceptions
as
to
its
efflorescence
and
redolence
are
de-familiarized,
and
an
alien,
sprawling
creature
emerges
whose
parts
extend
in
every
direction,
even
seeping
into
another
panel
of
the
diptych.
This
de-familiarization
and
reorientation
of
an
element
so
familiar
and
household
requires
tremendous
courage,
visual
perspicuity,
and
deftness
of
hands,
all
of
which
can
be
seen
in
these
painting.
Already
in
Safe
Society
(2009),
Exposed
and
Watch
out
this
year!
(2010),
And
Suddenly
Nothing
Happened
(2011),
NoBody
(2012),
Nameless
and
Elusive
Apprehensions
(2014)
Mojgun
Bakhtiary
had
been
following
futile
undertakings
and
the
vicious
cycle
of
hope
and
hopelessness
in
the
public
sphere,
sensitive
to
her
angle
of
entry,
which
sometimes
brought
her
to
individual
narratives
and
at
other
times
borrowed
directly
from
specific
laws.
She
plants
literary
and
cryptic
references
coming
from
the
prevalent
political
vocabulary
within
the
visual
field
of
the
frame
or
sometimes
in
their
title.
It
is
thus
that,
despite
their
visual
and
executional
diversity
of
all
her
works,
we
can
string
her
individual
works
together
like
prayer
beads.
Each
work
records
and
expresses
social
and
political
preoccupations
of
the
artist
who
feels
that
painting
has
full
capacity
to
communicate
her
beliefs
and
emotions,
and
the
artist
is
persistently
and
dedicatedly
using
the
“act
of
painting”
to
discover
its
capacities
–
painting
as a
virtuous
conduct
that
throws
light
on a
corner
for
wisdom
to
grasp.
Jinoos
Taghizadeh
September
2017
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