Roghieh Asgari
New work in progress
Portrait - two women 2019
The takings are between my mother (91 years now) and me in my childhood home in Tehran. The recordings were basically an attempt to wind up in my own story. I started with this when I returned to Tehran after 20 years, and I still continue.
The process of filming has been a constant digression in memories and retellings of several women's stories. A journey between dream and reality that is very far away from my everyday life in Norway.
My goal is to explore her story and what she remembers from her childhood.
I want to follow her and her story, it will be a completely different story. Where does my story go in the process?
Infallibility 2019
This video investigates the interaction between humans and objects from a very practical perspective: A woman doing maintenance work on an air cooler. Without buzzwords like "circular economy" or "lifecycle cost" she argues convincingly that 30 years is "no age" for the machine and that it's worth paying for good quality gaskets. The very concept of "human-object interaction" is made tangible in the way she talks about the cooler, like a family member or colleague who has been with them for 30 years and requires (and deserves) regular attention - "we need each other". The pride and affection she shows in her work with the new straw padding also illustrate how maintenance work affect us positively, which is often touted as both a condition for and a benefit of a more sustainable life style with fewer objects that last longer
The trolls among us (I livene leve) 2018
The recordings are from one of the last private courses he held.
The video is also a part of the total presentation of his life and work at the memorial exhibition at Kulturverket Flammen in Nittedal.
With the video and the following memorial exhibition, I want to put the spotlight on an artist who is at risk of being forgotten. Artist and ceramist Anthony Andersen (Tony) have shown great diversity in his artistic work during a long life.
Background
Anthony Andersen was born 10.04.1929 in Spydeberg, grew up in Motzfeldts gate 28 Tøyen Oslo (At the age of fifty he was told that he was adopted, he also got to know that he was the half-brother of Ulf Aas, the well-known cartoonist from Aftenposten)
He was a pioneer, at the age of sixteen he was admitted into the art and crafts academy. There he was educated as an industrial designer. Later he designed Norway’s first handicraft teapot which later has been purchased by the Norwegian industrial museum in Oslo.
Dionysian 2016
I have for a long time been interested in football as a phenomenon, both in small parks and in large arenas. In this video installation Dionysisk, which is presented on three screens, I have followed football supporters in Tehran both before and after the match.
Through my camera lens, we witness how the football audience's expectations build up before the match, and how it all culminates in a collective ecstasy.
Union 2015
The video shows the movement of people and goods (mainly carpets) at a bazar in Teheran, and the ground where this takes place. The video conveys a sense of limited and shared space, where people and goods sometimes seems stuck, but the traffic flows somehow. Occasionally we get a glimpse into the bazar booths, which all appear well stocked and ordered and thus provide proof that the system works: goods are provided and sold. As the pandemic has revealed the weaknesses of "optimised" and inflexible global supply chains, this video is a gentle reminder of the importance of flexibility and a sense of shared space in any market.
Moina 15 year 2014
In the film Moyna 15 years, the viewer is invited into a conversation between the artist and the young boy Moyna, who reflects on issues related to religion, confirmation, about finding oneself and not least being true to one's own ideals.
The sound of these falling tears 2011
The Sound Of These Falling Tears (The Video is dedicated to the victims of july 22 In Oslo, Norway)
These videos was put together for the exhibition Parallax Views in .No NYC ( curator : Koan Jeff Baysa) january 2012
The origin and loss of meaning 2008-2014
In these video works, I wish to examine different situations where being young is to be in a state of emergency.
A type of diagnosis. How will they survive adolescence? Where is their private life?
Is there a defined space to recover. And where?
In the time they define a room their life gets meaning.
It's about two states:
A state where they know what to do, and while they do it they forget everything else, life gets a whole different meaning. A state of trance.
And the other is their common reality.
This is when you have a strong sense of meaning.
Or a ritualized behavior that helps them to get through everyday life.
Abstract/Absurd
An interactive exploration of painting and video
In my video work I have also experienced that in the immediate documentary projects I have become part of the process myself, as a naive bystander, consciously and unconsciously present.
I get involved in the situation easily and expose myself in order to optimize the experience.
In such situations I have let the camera be my witness, while the action is due to my presence and what my body is experiencing.
These experiences are transferred to paintings that develop organically in the process.
The paintings’ composistion or structure lacks a core, are moving in all directions without a clear limit. There is a fusion and movement in labyrinths that ends in a trophy or souvenir, as a result of my work.
From merely being an observer , I cross the border, and land inside the project, in a state where the limit between object and subject has been removed. For me, there is an obvious connection between documentaries and paintings.
I want to look more closely at the situations and the work process, working with video/film and paintings. It becomes important to expose the connections between these various forms of expression. My aim is to create a visible context between paintings and documentaries that can be presented in a showroom for art, focussing on the process.
The Living room 2002 2007
In these videos I wish to explore the different situations in which women from Norway and Iran create a space in which they are able to express themselves.
I wish to show the reality that I observe and illustrate its context out from my own references. To turn around and look, use the power of reality to force me to see and remind others to see that individuals even when functioning as individuals are also functioning as organs of the larger group.
My political consciousness, my commitment and my own life are the references and driving force of my artistic expression. My background as a journalist has made me aware of the dynamic that arises in the interaction of the individual to the greater relational context and how these contexts are active in forming the human character
Room to Live
Carolina
Birdgirl (short)
Roghieh Asgari Torvund ©