May 2012 30

AZADEH BAHROOZI

Posted In artists

AZADEH BAHROOZI

Lives and works in England

Biography

An Iranian born artist, Azadeh trained as an architect and worked in environmental and urban planning.

In her artistic career she has a particular interest in sculpture and related disciplines of life drawing and painting. Her main focus is on political and social art that is reflective of her principles in life and her upbringing in a human rights environment.

Azadeh utilizes her ability in art to reflect her beliefs and personal experiences and to explore her feelings about the social and political upheaval in the world.

In her work she assertively challenges injustices in society, expressing her hope and that of many others, for positive change.

Her art work makes references to her Middle Eastern heritage, including its architecture and the use of calligraphy, incorporating traditional colours and design into contemporary comment on human rights.

Artist statement

Coming of Age

This piece challenges a number of interconnecting issues that oppress women from childhood to adulthood.

It provokes discussion on traditions as well as issues relevant to contemporary Britain.

The hijab, used as a symbol of the ongoing oppression of women is highlighted by the covering of a young girl’s body, the loss of her individual identity, and subsequent subordinate position in life from an early age.

The reference to education raises issues currently impacting in European societies about the tolerance of the hijab in mainstream schools and the separate education of children in religious based schools. It also points to the reality within traditional societies where education of girls is not a right and is still much contested.

The artwork questions the liberal assumption of cultural tolerance instead of placing the issue as an infringement of a child’s, and a woman’s, human rights.

Overall it is a statement against the symbolic subordination of the status of young girls and the role of women in society and a call for a more just and secular society.

May 2012 30

ELIZA BENETT

Posted In artists

ELIZA BENETT

Lives and works in United Kingdom

Biography

Born in England 1980, Eliza now resides in London. In 1997-1999 she studied a B-Tec National Diploma in Fine Art at Stafford College, specializing in textiles. From this point all formal ‘art’ training ended, as she went on in 1999-2002 to study a B.A. Honors in Fashion Design and Illustration at Middlesex University. This was a course that placed emphasis on concept and the creation of these ideas. In choosing a course she was careful to select one that placed little emphasis on commercial fashion and marketing as she was excited by the sculptural and figurative elements in fashion design and knew early on that she had little desire to embrace the industry as part of her life. After graduating she focused on her artistic development, working freelance creating bespoke pieces to commission. She found a natural gravitation towards costume design and prop making, stemming from her interest in creating a visual narrative by working with concept, form and character. Over the last couple of years she has returned to producing her own artistic work. It continues to be her main drive and focus.

Artist statement

As a visual interpreter, Eliza employs a range of techniques such as sculpting, casting, sewing and carving and applies them to the expression of themes central to existence, such as the formation and disintegration of identity, and the complexity of communication. With her work she is looking to create an iconography of physical existence, concentrating on the wonder of the lived moment, lifting the ‘intentional’ body to a state of reverence and worship. She expresses emotional experience in the form of tactile and animate sensations. Sometimes resulting in fixed sculpture, other times in photography, installation and film.

Pleading Affluenza can be viewed as an offering which provokes contemplation about physicality and the human capacity to perceive and act. The pleading hands are deep buttoned, referencing the style that was characteristically applied to inanimate furnishings of the Victorian bourgeoisie, and encased in an attempt to lift them out of their natural environment. The artist refers to the old and familiar styles of this era of artifice, by way of representing the body as a slightly ridiculous collection of ornamental parts, subject to the same alienating status of inert, lifeless objects.

“Acquisitiveness, riches and idleness had finally trapped her. Commodification of self had been her ultimate sacrifice. She placed herself and her acquisition on show, she stopped moving forwards, her life became still… She could no longer dwell in that soft well upholstered cell.”