Roya Najafzadeh Asl
Geometry of Nature
Untitled
2016
Mixed media on cardboard
42x42cm
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The improvised embroidery works of women in Azerbaijan inspire the Sensational Selection; women who, in the safety of their closet, pour their feminine feelings and passions in folds of colorful threads of the needlework. The paintings of this collection include the sensational feelings of a woman, who longs to depict the ultimate emotions of femininity; an attitude contradictory to the society, in which she grew. Her society has been a prejudice one, where women learn to be masculine-like and in contrast, little girls yearn to feel their mothers’ femininity.
The use of patterns from Islamic Geometry in the paintings is in accordance with the same prejudice andtraditionalism, which in itself is the main factor of frustration and repression of women’s existential emotions. Such women are constantly forced to dare their own femininity and what traditions impose on them. Amongst these patterns and forms, I have tried to picture women at their best feminine mode. These forms then mingle with a selection of flowers, essentially influenced by the deepest feminine feelings, which are the inmost core of the improvised embroidery works of Azerbaijani women.
Technique used in picturing the flowers is a substitute for embroidery on cloth, in order to convey those feelings to the audience. In fact, the presence of flowers in these works are symbols of sensationalpassions of women, deeply hidden in the depths of their men’s conventions.
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Roya Najafzadeh Aslis from Iran, West Azarbaijan. She holds an MA in painting from the Isfahan Art University, Iran. She is living and working in her hometown, Khoy. She believes that this place inspires her better than anywhere else and has a great effect on her artistic practice.
All contents of her paintings come from Azarbaijan's culture and natures.