Azita Moradkhani

Lives and works in NYC, NY, USA

Artist statement

The female body, and its exposure to different social norms, is central to my work. Through my drawings and body castings, I’m examining the experience when we find ourselves insecure in our own body. As Wangechi Mutu says "females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.” Unexpected images incorporate with intimate apparel, bringing humor and surprise in the layers beneath my art to reveal stories of shadowy images with the hope of leaving a mark on the audience. Two worlds–my birthplace and my current home–live alongside each other in my work, joining at one point, intimately. My drawings on both paper and body casts represent an aesthetic of pleasure and perception of beauty from a non-western perspective in an international context. Growing up in Tehran, I was exposed to Persian art and culture as well as Iranian politics, and that double exposure increased my sensitivity to the dynamics of vulnerability and violence that I explore in my work and art-making process. As a post-colonial woman artist working across drawing and sculpture, my work presents a feminist contrast to renowned scholar Edward Said’s “Orientalism”; womanhood in the post-revolution generation in Iran intertwines with conflicts between borders of tradition and (post) modernity. My series of colored pencil drawings of intimate lingerie, negligees and corsets explores connected narratives of pain...

Artwork