Birdhead

Atefeh Namavar was born in the Iranian capital of Tehran in 1981. She holds a Master’s degree in Painting from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of Tehran’s Islamic Azad University.
“Birdhead” is her third solo exhibition and her first solo collaboration with INJA Gallery. This series, which is comprised of sixteen paintings on canvas in different dimensions, is a continuation of Atefeh’s work on depicting layers of Iranian family life. The impact of literature and poetry on her paintings can most clearly be seen in this series; this is especially true with regard to the imaginative nature of these works, inspired by the works of Bijan Najdi.

Birdhead

In this series, entitled “Birdhead”, I took inspiration from the writings of Bijan Najdi, in which he states “I cut off a bird’s head and concealed it, wanting the reader to gaze at the intensified movements and seizures of its body, wings, and feet; moments before the bird meets death and finds its movement in a state of repose, an instant of heightened fusion with life, in close vicinity of death …” and just as he did, I considered no beginning or end for my paintings.
The images in Najdi’s stories are so vivid that the reader can clearly imagine every scene in their mind, envisioning birds that constantly collide with their surroundings, thus making their presence felt.
On the other hand, through my passion for literature, theater, and painting, I found his stories to be first-hand accounts that link these three fields by setting scenes of interaction between the protagonists, as in real life, scenes whose constant presence renders them invisible and which poetically depict my state of mind.

–
Atefeh Namavar
Summer 2021