http://www.assalgheysari.com/projects daily 1.0 2019-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1486960410737-PT2YNXYQ2FK65CKKBLBA/IMG_8148.JPG Performances/Installations/Paintings - H-OM H-OM is a bathing room in which I facilitate bathing rituals for women. I have currently focused my attention on Iranian women as a way to address critical issues regarding their representation in Contemporary art. The popular trope we often see is the veiled woman whose body is either victimized and/or sexualized — a common Orientalist approach to representing Muslim and Middle Eastern women. The stories and portraitures that I gather from my encounters with the women show the diverse identities that exist within this demographic and challenges the fantastical belief that Iranian-ness has some kind of essential face. Additionally, this work is part of a longer investigation into the subject of representation. I argue that any attempt to represent someone other than ones self creates an immediate distance between the subject represented and the subject herself. I am well aware that my representations of my subjects are my projections of who they are and are fully bias to my filters and desires to see them in the particular angle that I do. With my portraitures, I am interested in capturing moments of connection and inspiration. I am looking at my subjects as spiritual beings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1463596058700-90FW9V74GA1SNIXX712G/IMG_4649.JPG Performances/Installations/Paintings - If You Come To My House... 2016 — Given the complicated history that the United States and Iran have shared, this performance addresses my questions with what might come of the recent negotiations between the two countries, and the opening of a bridge that is re-connecting the Western world to my homeland after nearly 40 years of diplomatic silence. If You Come To My House… calls for a new type of cross-cultural encounter, where mutual humility, respect, and dignity become core values for our interpersonal relationships. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1477342271925-JQALWN9TJ3S5NQAN8DVQ/jason+photo+2.jpg Performances/Installations/Paintings THIS HOLY HOLE (2010) It is said that the womb is the safest and most comfortable environment an individual may experience. It is furthermore said that coming into the world is the biggest shock that one can experience, and that within each one of us, there is a deep yearning to return to the comfort and safety of our mother’s womb. 'This Holy Hole' is intended to simulate the womb experience. It is in the form of a box. The interior is dark and comprised of a revolving ball chair. When the door is shut, two speakers project the sound of a heart beating. The photos presented here are of myself. No photographs were taken of the visitors.     https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1494283161500-O3YB0I11560CSPJOL4MO/170420174452_bodies_of_water.jpg Performances/Installations/Paintings - Bodies of Water — 2017 In times of mass turmoil and crisis, engaging in practices that raise our collective consciousness and help us unify our physical, emotional, and spiritual body, is a form of social resistance to the established order of the world. I believe that ceremonial acts of washing and bathing are instances of such practices to achieve this unification. Water is venerated across many ancient and contemporary cultures as a gateway towards the divine other. In my participatory performances, I make use of it as a connective medium between myself and visitors, and record the traces of my encounters through remnants left behind that I have gleaned here as portraitures. If portraiture is in part intended to preserve memories of oneself and others, it is not the static and manufactured persona that I want to record. Rather, it’s those moments of encounter in time and space, where we are intimate, vulnerable, and fluid with ourselves and each other that I strive to archive.   In December 2016, I converted my studio at the California College of the Arts into a pop-up Hammam called H-OM, where I facilitate bathing rituals for women. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455245587196-D6N627AD3EZF51QVG7RK/agheysari01forWeb.jpg Performances/Installations/Paintings Connecting with The Sublime has always been at the heart of my practice. Regardless of the medium I use, I am always intent on creating a connective bridge between the physical and that which cannot be seen or felt by the five senses, but is nonetheless present and real. With The Sublime series I look for ways to evoke beauty in abstraction as I have seen it in my dreams and in times of meditation. 60X72 inches Oil paint and rhinestone on canvas 2015   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1568370962330-LOCKFU2DV54KKWUH0VY0/DSC01281.JPG Performances/Installations/Paintings - Own the Shadow/Share the Toxicity — 2019 Own the Shadow/Share the Toxicity is an instruction-based collaborative performance, with its first iteration taking place in Chicago, IL in the summer of 2019. The performance asks us to consider our relationship with one another, how we negotiate our needs, and what our responsibility and identification might be to the bodies of water that surround us . In this performance, the public and I sat together as we washed each other’s hands with soap made of dirt from Iran, and water from the (“polluted”) Chicago River while taking turns in saying the mantra: “ I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me, I Love You, Thank You” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1534779880717-8A4QHFR5A3TWO1FG8C9I/IMG-5154.JPG Performances/Installations/Paintings - 5D activation points — 2018 5D activation points are created through the practice of meditation using the flower of life matrix and Tetrahedron structure which are derived from sacred geometry. 5th dimensional frequency is where the earth and the human consciousness are headed. These activation points support the transition from 3rd dimensional frequency to 5th dimensional frequency. This is a process of evolution in which we awaken and remember who/what we are. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455218806842-6CBEA116C5RAENVU6YNL/image-asset.jpeg Performances/Installations/Paintings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455563773663-SZFC87GHFGKXNAG80LNZ/agheysari08forWeb.jpg Performances/Installations/Paintings http://www.assalgheysari.com/work-selfrepresentations-1 daily 0.75 2024-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1477340966260-KFIMS32R8SW587KADIEE/Maya.jpg Inner Journey Chronicle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455561683864-025SZXGN8KWLEY6IHOGM/biopic.jpg Inner Journey Chronicle - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARIE (2014) Marie lived from 2010 to 2014. She traveled the world, met many people, celebrated the mundane in life, and never worried about tomorrow. She was an alter-ego, a constructed persona who represented the unconscious embodiment of my Western ideals of beauty. As I grew in self-awareness and self-acceptance of my Iranian identity, I realized that Marie had fulfilled her purpose. In honor of the important role she had played in my life, I staged her funeral and memorial in my garden, and facilitated a Letting Go Ritual, inviting the public to also dispose, by way of a "self-confession", of that which no longer served them in their own lives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1725451658008-3RQAK0Z9EUJ7OACTT17I/Screenshot%2B2024-09-04%2Bat%2B11.16.26%2BAM.jpg Inner Journey Chronicle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455146371508-K9YJUUE8XO0CTGFYFAAQ/IMG_2643.JPG Inner Journey Chronicle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455221303530-M8VDL1RWF6SCMHL2K6BP/Screen+shot+2012-07-01+at+3.41.27+PM.png Inner Journey Chronicle http://www.assalgheysari.com/test-index daily 0.75 2025-05-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51e6b9c9e4b050adffbe392c/1451590433084-6I0CHB8O1FU2XAVN1JX5/6bf9edd0565867d7299fa2e9bba4dae7.jpg TEST INDEX https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51e6b9c9e4b050adffbe392c/1451590449568-K9OC34HK3H6N22BTUC4J/Vinyl.jpg TEST INDEX http://www.assalgheysari.com/about daily 0.75 2025-11-08 http://www.assalgheysari.com/contact daily 0.75 2016-02-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bb797f859fd0422da8b305/1455219279921-5ZP8FWWIS12KAWL2AX0T/Priya1.jpg Contact http://www.assalgheysari.com/home daily 0.75 2019-08-27