Elham Kalantari

During these 10 years as an emerging artist, I have always tried to portray my personal concerns and their connection with society. Observing how the collective mindset diverged from normalcy and justice to being obstructed by rigid rules, I shifted my focus onto how people experience reality in a totalitarian system, that gives them no option but to conform. As time went on, I realized that, as an artist, my view toward various professions can create the identity of the work much more than it really shows, which can also have a different implicit impact. I decided to make up my confused mind by studying psychology, in order to have a better analysis of what I am thinking of. In that way, I could expand my works’ subjects.  Along this way, I chose any medium that could bring me closer to the depth of my work, which was mostly through camera _ photo and video. Yet I could sometimes represent my inner-self better through drawing.

As an instance, in Synopsis of Mind video, I am particularly showing my mind at a time where I was extremely mentally under pressure, and there were a lot of questions in my head that had led me to nihility. For several months, my mind was immersed in this abyss without the slightest glimmer of hope or reason for existing or creating!

The result was that I realized human is enough for himself/herself and that whatever is going on inside us, has no roots elsewhere. Nothing motivated me more than I could convey this concept and still does not. Consciousness remains by conveying it to even one person! This was depicted with a video loop according to my experience.

The self-portrait drawings originate from my constant scrutiny of myself as someone who wants to create. So that I can face what I have inside and express all the emotions that I have experienced to others. Drawing and painting have always made this connection very real and close.