STRETCH MANIFESTO: MAHVASH, PARIVASH and FRIENDS (2017)

Stretch Manifesto: Mahvash, Parivash and Friends is a series of hand drawn and painted watercolor on paper, 52”x 52”, based on the abstracted forms of bikinis repeated and presented without the femme figure while simultaneously representing it as part of my ongoing Stretch Manifesto series. Named after pop singer Jalal Hemati’s song “Parivash” and intentionally painted to look like screened or stamped prints, the repetition becomes a metaphor for market and surplus in an industry that commodifies humans but can not mass manufacture the body through automated means. The paintings intentionally incorporate the tenets of Islamic Art, mathematical abstractions of shape and form, without use of the human figure.