How are you? What does the current situation in Paris look like?
I am doing good. What matters most to me is to find inspiration to paint every day. Whatever happens, whatever the situation. Painters spend most of their time in their studios. I cannot say the current situation with COVID-19 in Paris impacts me too much. However, on a daily basis, not seeing the faces of people in the streets – because of the mask – is very strange and sad above all. I used to enjoy watching faces when I walked.
Your visual language is very recognizable and memorable – strong contrasts, lots of skin, and untypical poses. How did it come about?
I think the origins of a visual language for a painter are rarely very conscious. As for me, it comes from how I see the world and what I want to express, but also from my utopias.
It looks like a film scene. How do you describe your topics?
In my paintings, I deal with existential subjects such as desire, war, fear, love, and death. Then, I borrow different forms of expression, which inspire me without any hierarchy – such as old paintings, cinema, the primitive arts, etc. I always need a strong human presence in my paintings. I also often ask my friends to pose for me and I take pictures of them. And indeed, the shooting looks like the backstage of a film shooting. The characters are often paused in a cliffhanger action, which is hard to decrypt.
Intimacy means…
Privacy is often a secret. Something of your own that you don’t expose. But artistic work has a direct link with intimacy. In any case, art is a creative and poetic form of enhancing intimacy and showing it to an audience.
What do you do when you don’t paint? What do you enjoy?
I love reading, watching good movies, going on great trips, and seeing my close friends. Even if these moments of life may have no connection with painting, I always use them in one way or another to create my paintings.
What are your plans for the rest of 2020?
Despite the current situation, I had a very busy year in terms of exhibitions and events. The coming months will be quieter ones. Starting in February 2021, I am participating in a collective exhibition entitled Ex Africa at the musée du Quai Branly. If all goes well, I will participate with my gallerist Vincent Sator in the next edition of Art Brussels in the spring.
Nazanin Pouyandeh – www.nazaninpouyandeh.com