Mobina Nouri
Seen or Unseen
“The journey of the mind cannot be limited. Forbidden poems, forbidden words, forbidden lines, forbidden art, forbidden artists! what is the boundary between forbidden and permitted, what is the boundary between seen and unseen? Things that we can not see might hold the answers to our questions.”
Mobina began using ink and bamboo pen when she was six years old to write poems. Growing up as a child in a fearful environment of Iran-Iraq war, poems were a magical escape from reality. As a young woman coming from Iran to the West, she experiences the different pressures, cultural expectations and demands for conformity of both societies. Moving to London and immersing herself in the creative and intellectual milieu, she developed a new way to explore her evolving identity as a woman in a totally new culture using powerful photos of herself and veil them over and over with calligraphic fragments of poems creating mysterious transcendent layers as a medium of expression: full of words, sensuality and layers of meaning.
Cascade, 2018 (30”x45”), 270,000 words of Rumi poems, hand written gold ink calligraphy on photo
Hair in the wind (Zolf bar baad), 2017 (30”x45”), Hafiz poems, Hand written black ink calligraphy on canvas
Sheltering Love, 2018 (30”x45”), 250,000 words of Rumi poems, hand written silver ink calligraphy on photo
Love and Sorrow, 2018 (30”x45”), 5,000 words of Shamloo poems, hand written gold ink calligraphy on photo
Privacy in Palace (Harim), 2017 (30”x45”), Forough Farrokhzad poems, hand written black ink calligraphy on photo
Angel (Pari), 2017 (30”x45”), Hafiz poems, hand written gold ink calligraphy on photo
Mobina Nouri is an Iranian artist currently living and working in San Francisco. Mobina grew up in Iran where she pursued a variety of her interests in art by completing a B.A. in Theatre at Fine Art Tehran University, and an M.A. in Art and Design at Art University Tehran; before moving to London where she earned a Ph.D. in Creativity Science in City University London.
Mobina’s artworks are deeply rooted in traditional calligraphy and poetry. Her pieces are often created in collaboration with international poets and photographers. Mobina’s latest series, POETOGRAPHY, blends calligraphy, poetry, and photography. These richly emotive and layered compositions explore her cross-cultural identity as a female immigrant moving and living between Iran, the UK, and the USA. Her works were exhibited in London at Hay Hill and Prince of Wales London, as well as, Live Worms Gallery and the SOMA Cultural Center, Pars Equality Center live auction and Nowrouz City Hall in San Francisco.
Follow Mobina on Instagram @mobinanouri.studio