Interview with Taha Heydari

Taha Heydari was born and raised in Tehran, he moved to Baltimore in 2014 to pursue his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), completing his degree in Hoffberger School of Painting, in 2016. Since his graduation, he was granted an Artist Visa and has worked full time in his studio in Baltimore.

He is interested in painting as a possibility of encountering what images do in relation to what they are made of and how they appear to us. Pixelated broken tv images, caused by Iranian government satellite jamming, triggered Heydari’s fascination with the moment of glitch, as a visible instance of the separation between the technology of fabricating, presenting images and what the images do and show. He uses acrylic and various palette knives, rollers, and airbrush to create complex, highly detailed surfaces where he can accentuate the significance of tools, material, and technology in the act of representation.

Heydari is represented by Haines Gallery in the US and Ab-Anbar Gallery in Tehran and his work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2017) Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2016-2018), Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York, NY (2015)

Liam: What made you realize you want to be an artist?

Taha: I wasn’t conscious of that moment; I mean my dad is a painter. I was always around art, art materials, artists. It was a very gradual self-realization; it wasn’t a decision so I cannot recall any moment. Art is part of my life.

Liam: Many artists get this unique feeling of concentration when they create. Do you recall a moment where you first felt something like that or something similar?

Taha: I cannot recall the first time or second time or last time, I it’s just my everyday life. I have been a full-time painter for the last 10 years. It’s so embedded in every day, every second of my life, I have a hard time distinguishing between art and life. Creativity is not a separate entity for me, it’s just there. it’s in my life style.

Liam: I sometimes think social media has a negative effect on how we interpret art, because social media is generally more amusing than it is meaningful. What effect do you think the internet has on art?

Taha: Right, I get that. The Internet is a place that you can order a pizza from, you look at your Instagram, you can see art, or you could get an email from your bank account. it’s a place where you consume art exactly where you order food, or a jacket, or pay your bills. It’s a place that we have never had this in the entirety of human history.

Liam: So you talk about presenting the moment of the glitch in your artwork. What does that mean to you?

Taha: I was first visually interested in what happens when your Wi-Fi goes bad, or your cable, or the speed of internet, something happens and a pixilated moments starts in-between the formation of images, we aren’t usually conscious of those moments. I became fascinated with those moments and started taking screenshots anytime it happens. Static and pixilation was a pretty common phenomenon in Iran because the government used to jam satellites I don’t know if they’re still doing this. It would prevent us from receiving TV channels from other countries. Fascinating for me is when glitch or pixelated moment like that happens.

it’s visually intriguing, you see pixels that are not the pixel of any image. You see a pixel appearing on my face right now that doesn’t represent my face. You realize that that pixel is an abstract form, it doesn’t have a reason, it’s not creating, it’s not here to form an image. It’s the sudden disruption or conflict between two waves. A technical glitch will happen, and the picture will pixelate or freeze. You will see me but it is not me at that moment. There are a lot of things working right now just for us to talk. There are cables under us, satellites above us and you have a laptop. I have a laptop. We both have routers. Its fascinating that these things form an image.

Liam: Wow, that’s kind of got my brain going in reverse for a second. That’s a really interesting observation!

Taha: When you are watching the news or the television, you are not only seeing the TV. The television, the wi-fi, they are showing you images of themselves. You’re seeing an image of an image

Liam: Did Iranian culture influence your work in any major way?

Taha: Yes, I lived in Tehran for 28 years and was born during the Iraq war, it was eight years of war. Television was showing footage of battlefields and revolutionary chants and documentaries about war all of the time so I was somehow wired to be conscious politically, to think about war, think about ideology. Topics like religion, politics, and ideology, were a part of my everyday world, my whole generation was affected by that environment.

Liam: You said that your father was an artist too. Did his ideas play a major role on the way that you view art as an adult?

Taha: Yes, less in an aesthetic manner but he does influence my ideas and theories. We still have two or three hour talks about art, philosophy, and politics. One of the things embedded in my childhood is how excited I used to get about hanging out around my dad while he was painting. While he was painting in his studio, I would hang out with him and enjoy watching him paint or make art as well. Those years had great impact on who I am today, Sometimes I feel like he literally installed my operating system.

Liam: What steps do you recommend for artists who want to be as successful as you are?

Taha: I don’t know if I’m successful, that’s a fascinating term that I have heard more often since I moved to the USA. In grad school everyone wanted to make it, but back in Iran that was less important. What does making it mean? Much of capitalism is rooted in the idea of success, there’s a criteria for measuring that in how much you sell, or how much you make, how many solo shows you’ve done, or which museum owns your pieces. This mentality doesn’t exist in some other parts of the world. This is a new thing for me, I see all these artists also being entrepreneurs and promoting themselves. Some people are interested and the art sells, I don’t know if this is terrible or not. I just love what I’m doing and I feel like I would say if they don’t like what they’re doing, they should just give up. Do you know what I mean?

Liam: That’s an admirable way of looking at it. I can appreciate that. I think that at the end of the day, it’s not about how many people know who you are. It’s more about how you feel when you create things.

 Taha: Exactly I’m having fun, that’s to me the most valuable thing for me. Some people are interested in buying my work, and that’s good but I do what I enjoy. I try to keep these two worlds, the world of making art, and the world of selling art completely separated. That’s my advice. Don’t bring dealers, collectors, museum success, or money to your studio.

Liam: What do you think that MICA gave to you? Did you gain anything from being in that kind of environment?

Taha: I’m still processing that, being Iranian and coming to the USA you’re so overwhelmed with the amount of new things that are being presented to you. I am a curious person, I want to see new things. I feel like MICA, at least for the first year was just a container to experience this cultural language barrier and new things, I would often wonder what are these people talking about for 45 minutes in class? I had to put the pieces together about how to communicate with people in a new place, speaking a new language, and at the same time I was being introduced to all of these new things. I didn’t realize until I was about to graduate how MICA ultimately offered me a safe space to land in this country and meet a lot of great people and form a community. In terms of theory or thinking, I would say didn’t get much, but in terms of community and people it was phenomenal.

Liam: That sounds wonderful. I know community can really shape a mind. Do you think that a language barrier affected the way that you made your artwork?

 Taha: Yes, I didn’t dare to speak because I wasn’t confident about my English. I mean, the first year I barely spoke during critiques, it was intimidating. I feel like me not being able to communicate made me put more energy into the visual experience.

To see more of Taha Heydari’s work check out his website!

/http://www.tahaheydari.com/seance/