INTERVIEW WITH NEDA DANA-HAERI

by art journalist and writer Lisa Pollman

Neda Dana-Haeri, All that I like about you, 2014, Acrylic on gesso paper, 45 x 45 cm

Prior to becoming a full-time artist, you initially trained as a Psychologist.
Has this formal education in the field of Psychology inspired your work?
How?

It has indeed influenced my work. I am interested in the personal and collective
unconscious and in the ways that they influence our life. Most of my work shows
layers of colour and texture, representing the layers of memory coming and
surging to the conscious mind.

As an artist working in the non-figurative realm, your works nonetheless
betray profound concepts about humanity. What drew you to use this
visual vocabulary to address these issues?

I started as a figurative artist, but gradually the figures were transformed and
became more abstract. I feel that the realm of abstraction is a better way to
portray what I want to achieve, which is showing the layers of the unconscious
and memory. The viewer should be able to interact with the painting with
interplays of light, colour and texture that give the viewer the possibility to reflect
and interpret.

Can you speak more about how your work embodies the idea of Cultural
Memory?

Cultural memory for me could, for example, be a colour. The colour turquoise or
an iconic reference like a tree, which has a resonance with being Persian, has a
familiarity which brings along with it centuries of common culture, rites and
shared history. Every time I look at a tile, a certain familiarity is stirred. I use tiles
with familiar icons like Cypress trees, birds, or just the colour turquoise to make
this link.

Can you talk about the importance of ones journey and how it shows up in
your work?

Yes, I refer to journey in my work a lot. Maybe thats why I work in series, as
every work/series is a journey. In Eastern philosophy, the journey is from self to
self. Each of my series is a journey within that topic, whether it is Shahnameh,
Aghl-e sorkh or the Scrolls: as the viewer sees them, he or she embarks on a
personal journey of exploration through the nature of paint, colour, light, texture
and space.

Is your experience as a diasporic artist based in London depicted in your
artwork? How?

Of course! I reference Persian culture in most of my work. I read classical
Persian poetry (like Hafez and Rumi) and philosophy and modern /contemporary
poetry (Tajalli Keshavarz, with whom I have published a book, Unbound
Expressions). At the same time, my medium of expression is a visual abstraction
informed by the vibrancy of the London art scene which amalgamates all my
experiences.

You like to work with paper. What aspects of this medium do you
particularly enjoy? What attributes do you find challenging?

Paper is a very intimate medium for me. It is very tactile and the immediacy of
working with it is very appealing. There is the element of unpredictability, the
unknown, and suddenness. It has references to calligraphy, which I like and to
some extent, a fragility which is challenging and exhilarating.

Lets talk about the colours that you use. Is there a reason that you use
many blues and reds in your work? What do these colours mean to you as
a Persian artist?

As I mentioned above, blue and turquoise are the colours of Persia for me and
represent the colours of Esfahan, tiles and pottery. Blue is the colour of
unconscious; I visualise my mind as a sea. I also use white as the inherent light
and reds as sudden illumination.


Regarding some of the brushes that you use. Can you tell us which ones
you employ and what function they perform?

Brushes are somehow part of you. I enjoy experimenting with different kinds of
brushes, even if they are meant to be used for a particular surface or paint. I mix
and experiment. I also like to use other things like a bamboo branch, leaf,
feather, chopstick. I mix my inks and paints in the same way.

Some of your work is meant to be unrolled, much like a manuscript. Can
you tell us more about this series?

The idea behind the scroll is the concept of unfolding and that is what I would
like to convey. The series on scrolls are called Who knows my secret knows
my secretwho knows In Persian poetry, the Mystery or the Secret is
hidden and at the same time, it is also open and manifest. These scrolls
represent this concept. They are open, yet they are being unfolded. The idea is
to convey what appears and what is beyond the appearance.

They can be read from bottom-to-top or top-to-bottom, some even are two-sided
and can be read left-to-right or right-to-left. They are painted on Japanese rice
paper, so there is an element of Japanese culture and, reference to both Persian
and Japanese calligraphy. They vary in length from 2 meters to 10 meters.

For those who may not be familiar with Sufi poetry, can you please tell us a
bit about the structure and allegory behind some of Sufi poems that you
reference and how are these represented in your artwork?

The chaotic world of change and perpetuity is expressed in Sufi poetry through
reference to natural phenomena like tree, birds, wind, fire, sea, eyes, hair, skin
and senses. I get my inspiration from these and I express them in the realm of
colours, graduation of colours, light and shade.

Ive noticed feathers in your work. Can you tell us about the Conference of
the Birds and how your work references Farid ud-Din Attars seminal
poem?

Colourscape is the name of the series. It is inspired by the allegory of the
Conference of the Birds, a poem by 12th century Persian poet/philosopher,
Farid-Uddin Attar, in which he describes how a group of birds embark on a
journey to find the legendary Phoenix, the symbol of eternal rebirth. To achieve
this, they must pass through seven valleys: Quest, Love, Knowledge,
Independence, Detachment and Unity, Bewilderment, and finally Liberation.

I have depicted each of the valleys employing colour and feather motifs to evoke
either the birds or the space they find themselves in, allowing the viewer to
participate in this journey and become travellers themselves.
I use hints of colours to emphasise depth and texture. In this series, colour and
texture occupy a central role corresponding to the birds journey combining the
temporal with the spiritual, juxtaposing the travellers perceptions of changing
personal space and the passage of time.

Neda Dana-Haeri, Tightrope Walker, 2014, household paint and ink on gesso paper, 150 x 120 cm

Please tell us more about the Tightrope Walker series.

This series came about while I was on my residency at the Griffis Art Center in
the United States in 2014. I was reading Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
I have used Nietzsches expression as the starting point of an existential dialectic
that I am creating in my work. Just like the movement of the sun across the rope
of horizon where a symphony of colours and light shimmer on the surface of the
sea, your senses dissolve in each other in an understanding of the universal.