I am Soroor Salehinejad. I was born on 23 May 1981 in Karaj city. I learned drawing from Master Siavash Mehviseh during high school. This was the only artistic education I received from a master of art and I learned the rest of the techniques experimentally. Despite my great interest in painting and sculpture, due to the intellectual conditions of that time, I did not go to art school and finished high school in experimental sciences. At university, I chose “French Language and Literature” and at the same time worked as a cartoonist in student and local publications in Karaj. I also devoted myself to experimental learning of painting in oil, watercolour and composite techniques. In 2012, when my twins were two years old, I held my first solo exhibition at Kamal al-Din Behzad Gallery and since then my professional and continuous activity began. So far, I have held three solo exhibitions, the fourth of which will hopefully come to fruition this year, and I have participated in ten group exhibitions. I also collaborated in making the background of a feature-length animation about the biography of George Gurdjieff, a famous mystic, from Armenia, and I have won awards in two international calls. In these years, I have also taught creative art to children and learned carpet design from Master Mohammad Niyasti to benefit from the principles of illumination and tilework and learn Iranian painting forms.

This collection is called Arshak Abad. It is named after Arshak I, the founder of the Arsacid dynasty. At first, the coins of this period caught my attention. The faces engraved on the Arsacid coins each showed a distinct and separate personality that had its own unique characteristics and all these unique features were displayed on a few one or two-centimetre or millimetre coins. But what was more interesting to me than anything else was that they had depicted the faces of these great and powerful kings who had marked one of the most glorious periods of Iran’s flourishing without any reduction, exaggeration, or beautification. For example, they had portrayed a king who had a large eagle nose as it was and I did not see any appearance or politics in making these coins… On the other hand, the faces of the kings were very witty and had attractive characters. Just like the characters of children’s cartoons and I, who was the mother of two children, decided to create this collection for children to introduce them to one of the very golden periods of Iranian history. This was the longest reign that Iranian history has ever passed and kings who were very interested in reviving Iranian and Achaemenid culture and considered themselves as successors of the Achaemenid kings. They worked hard to revive and protect Iranian culture and customs after the rule of the Seleucids. Unfortunately, people are less familiar with the Arsacid government, perhaps because this golden period has been ignored for various reasons and I also wanted to fill this gap for the children of my land and draw their attention to the subject of Arsacids and nearly five hundred years of our land’s history. Therefore, I chose the most prominent Arsacid kings who had left a good name and a lot of good deeds behind and using the faces engraved on the coins of that period, I depicted and created the character of each one. And since this collection was designed for children, I decided to reduce the violence of the kings’ weapons by using flowers, butterflies and animals in my works.

This collection, since it was being made for children, naturally had to have more kindness and gentleness in it and also had to avoid drawing violent scenes in these works. Of course, as I explained, the faces of the Arsacid kings engraved on the coins were also not drawn in the usual way of being artificial and emotionless and they had depicted themselves with a smile and natural facial features. Therefore, a good background for working for children had been created a thousand and one years ago, which I also continued.

War certainly brings hunger with it. Lack of food and nutrition can be considered one of the first effects of war, but I also consider other kinds of hunger imposed on humans due to war and I want to draw your attention to them. Hunger for peace, hunger for culture, hunger for happiness, hunger for education, hunger for security, hunger for art and so on.

Many of these hunger are not seen or understood in their own time, but their impact will appear in the future. A person who spends his childhood in war will not have a childhood or at least not enough of a childhood… He grows up fast and remains hungry for childhood. And its destructive effects will manifest in his future life without him knowing sometimes. And so are the other hungers that I mentioned to you. Many of our behaviors, conservatism, aggressions, fears and so on are derived from these various past hungers.

But about art, in war people have less opportunity to engage in art. Sometimes they are happy just to have survived. In war, many talented people will not have the opportunity to pursue art and this will create a society hungry for art… Of course, this society is not eager for art because due to the involvement with war and the priority of defending themselves, they do not have the opportunity to understand and receive art, but they are wounded by the lack of art that is the calmer of society and individual and perhaps they need years of special and comprehensive treatment and attention to heal their wounds.

And the final question, today the war in Ukraine has become one of the reasons for the tension in food prices in the world. The budget of the global humanitarian organizations is small and suitable for special or small events, but today the crises in Africa, Yemen or Afghanistan after the arrival of the Taliban involve millions of people and for an indefinite period. Providing aid was difficult in normal circumstances and it became harder with inflation. But the pain of these millions of people and the twist of fate of their lives does not seem to be very important for the warmongering political leaders. What is your view on their policies?

Interview with Soroor Salehinejad, an Iranian painter, on his views on the role of women in art, war and hunger. From Ukraine and the Middle East to the whole world.

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Interview with Soroor Salehinejad, an Iranian painter, on his views on the role of women in art, war and hunger. From Ukraine and the Middle East to the whole world.

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