pt1.The delivery - - - oct12
over the past few months, ive been applying to shows in the area. from galleries to fairs, to even small showings with family and family friends. And I got referred to an iranian artist in the area. She makes both 2d and 3d collages, and the family friend who referred me said that I should give her a follow. So I do. Apparently shes known in the local DMV persian community, and I didn’t rly know there was an art scene within there so I was def tryna see something.
Now, the persian community here has always given me the ick honestly. From the men being entirely oblivious to their actions, and to the women being solely focused on flexing and tearing other ppl down, its kinda not so great. Most of the older generation came for money and education, and unfortunately they look down on other iranian people that didnt get the best jobs or educations. V elitist, patronizing, and judgemental. And the corniest high school drama amongst literal parents. Amazing food tho. I was a part of a pretty decently sized persian community through high school, but during college I kinda cut most of those ties - nothing intentional, I liked a lot of them but I didn’t feel like myself around most of them. And I was busy lmao. I also didn’t speak farsi, and a lot of them knew each other since they were young. The younger generation wasn’t as bad, but it def had its gossip (looking back its more generic high school drama tbh) So leaving that group wasn’t too hard.
But I never really looked back. So to see that there was a possible re-entrance to the community was interesting. And i wasn’t rly doing anything else besides job apps lmao. And then the artist made a post.
It was a call for art, asking for 2d media and relief sculptures. Which was odd, as nobody rly asks for relief sculptures. So i applied, and sent a few pics in.
She was excited; she said yes, and sent me a form to fill out, and to bring in four of the five pictures I emailed in. (side note - always have cleaned pictures of your work, especially if your work is 3D or in a non-rectangular form). I spend a day hammering shit together and then i’m ready to go. I was juggling a stopmotion project at the same time but it was all good, had some trouble printing stuff but we move.
So I’m driving over, its like 7:30 by the time I get there. I walk into a decently sized space with three persian woman and someone’s daughter just chatting about - they haven’t seen eachother in a minute but one of them fully had her foot out of the door trying to leave for like 10 minutes lmao. The parent leaves, and its just me, and the two other artsist. Both of them were a bit shorter than me, I’m guessing a gemini and a taurus, and dressed like …eccentric artists. One had dyed red hair, and the other was a purple platinum, which was both truly a slay, but also gave them a more rebellious persian adult vibe. For better or for worse, it usually just means they’re opinionated but funny after a bit + dgaf about persian niceties. After our introductions I start taking my pieces out.
And they immediately start cooking each one. Like no hesitation. My first thought:
wowwwwww im not even surprised like these persian ppl r always doing this type of shit bruh like I fully drove 40 minutes over state lines to get to this place like r u serious rn. I haven’t even ate yet and i didn’t even remember one of the ladies names like im so tired fuuuuuuuck thissss
Alas, this was one of the few times in my current life where I could get a rly honest critique irl. “The mixed media looks cheap” “you should’ve sanded this more” “theres no story” “whats the point of this” “this is too busy” “y is ur older piece better than your newer piece” like it was rly relentless and this went on for like 10 minutes while I try and actually figure out what they’re saying. and I was shook. Like I didn’t even figure out where to put my stuff yet. After a calm evisceration, they say they’re only gonna take 3 of the 4 pieces they asked for. I try and j talk to them to learn more about them, but they start closing everything down. I walk bewildered to my car, and sat down next to my piece truly and utterly gagged.
pt 2.The Event - - - oct 22
so after that little moment and the drive home of me j cussing in the car, I was a bit peeved. I looked thru the artist’s work again and then fumed for a bit.
Come the day of the show, I am not excited to show up at all. It was far asf, and I did not care to rush through lunch. And what was happening in Palestine was the most front and center thing on my mind too. I didn’t rly want to meet people with everything going on. But going out would’ve helped my mental health a lot, and the artist said she may get an interviewer to come. I’ve been wanting to do an interview for a minute too.
Begrudgingly, I get my shit going. Clean up, fit on, and meander through traffic. Going into shows is always nerve wracking, but going to a place where english isn’t guaranteed is an extra stress to everything. Alas, I just have to pretend like I’ve been there before and then it should work well.
And I step through the door, into a decently busy area. There was signs of a lot of foot traffic, but as i showed up like an hour and a half late, I could tell people had left. ~30 people were left, and they were all chatting about. I’m looking around - the walls had a row of paintings, drawings, and collages throughout it, each with enough space to breathe, but still comfortably near each other. It rly was well put together, which was a relief for sure. Speaking of reliefs, there were none to be found. Immediately, i start to think ive been snubbed. I wasn’t surprised, and truly was ready to leave.
And as if Moses himself came down, a small crowd of people split apart to show an entrance to another room. And the curating artist finds me and takes me to my works. After saying our hellos and checking in, I am reunited with my pieces on the wall. Or at least two of them. She said there wasn’t enough wall space for three, which was honestly fair, but I still was a bit peeved (see thought above) but I just moved past it. A win is a win. I chat with the other artists.
Most were iranian immigrants from a huge age range. I was the youngest, and the person closest to me in age was trying to fix her piece’s set up. The original frame for it broke during the set up, and she was fighting for her life to get that piece sorted. She got it eventually tho, and she was cool. An entrepreneur, she also had a small juice business making Iranian juices. If I have an event in DC i’ll def get those. There were sculptors, photographers, painters, jewelers, and patrons all chatting about the artworks. Some quiet, some loud, some standing a little too far, and some standing a little too close. It was nice to talk about my pieces again, and its nice seeing how artists talk about their own pieces.
One of the people asked to find my website, and I told them that they can just search my name on the little title placards for the pieces. they lean in and say “Raz Ghornpor”.
mf huh
LIKE HUH
Upon closer observation, my name for the placards was written as “Raz Ghornpor”. I felt the longest hair on my ever-colder head release itself into the breeze.
I am used to having my name being incorrect, as it is pretty long. But this was a jump. Especially as the placard for my artist statement had my name as “Faraz Gorbanpo”, Which was still wrong. And the price tags were $100 off. and that was an actual problem. gaggening #2.
And thankfully, the head of the gallery space introduces herself to me. A fellow Iranian American in a crowd of American Iranians. Or at least she grew up in the states and is still learning the finer details of farsi. We chat, cute intros, etc, and I introduce my works to her. We do the spiel, and talk about it in relation to iranian cultures. it was cute but then we got to business.
First we go over the name tags. She went a bit red, and then guaranteed that they’ll be fixed, especially the pricetags. Cuz had they sold the pieces underpriced, I wouldn’t have given my 20% fee, or at least I’d have bitched and moaned the whole time. Then she offered me to run a class on running a business for younger people. It was interesting, but unpaid. Im still open to it, but it was more like “here’s a future plan that we thought about” versus something theyre actually trying to bring to fruition. Regardless, shes a good connection. She offered to have any future show announcements in her email newsletter, and that is fire asf. Shoutout emails fr
Then I took some pics and rly just chatted with a few more people, then went home. I stopped at the mall for boba but then I saw that it cost $7 so I just left lmao. Parking was ass tho so it was a begrudging exit. but i rly am not paying $7 for watery boba like thats not how i need my bobussy ate.
pt 3. The Interview - - - Nov20
For the past few weeks I was working on a fundraiser, so this wasn’t on my mind too much. But we got an interview scheduled with Voice of America! and i was like woahhhh that sounds legit. and I thought of making it political until I heard they just censor politics out + the interviewer was a friend of the curating artist and I didn’t wanna fuck that relationship up. So I went to the gallery.
I showed up wayyy too early - I just meandered around the area, got some breakfast, meandered some more. I was gonna take the Greyhound bus to visit family afterwards so I had a backpack full of stuff that was about to bust the whole time. I reach into my pocket and got a small cut on the edge of my fingernail that j started bleeding profusely. As I am known to pass out over seeing my own blood, I was a bit concerned. I did a quick lil walk to the 7/11 and hid in their bathroom trying not to bleed all over my white shirt. and ofc, this happened like 3 minutes before we had to be there so that was prime. I lived tho.
I get to the show first, then two other artists, and the curating artist show up basically at the same time. We do our little hellos and just chat some more. The camera guy and interviewer are scoping out the room. I do my go-to conversation with people: Utah and Mormons. It usually lands and is pretty safe while still being a fun conversation to have. Unfortunately everyone else highjacks it and only speaks in farsi. But from what I heard, there was actually a decent Mormon population in Iran.
Since Mormons went on mission trips everywhere, they also had people in Iran. This specific one lived in one of the artists neighborhoods when she was young (the late 70s). the family was super reserved and mysterious, but had a lot of security around them generally. She walked past their house on the way to school, but one day there was an insane amount of security. I think she said it was at the start of the revolution in the 70s. But the next day, the house was entirely empty - the family left randomly mid week after living there for a few years, and they got privately flown out via helicopter to get to the airport. Apparently, the dad of that family was an american military or government person.
We get to interviewing. The lady interviewing was also an Iranian born person, but moved to the states young. She seemed both rushed and nonchalant, but I think she was trying to figure out her schedule for the day. We go one by one next to our pieces to talk. Everyone goes quiet during the interviews, but we whisper our little chats. Me and one of the other artists r having absolute banter and cackling until we get a bombastic side eye.
Its my turn, and we talk about one of my pieces. I see that my name is still “Raz Ghornpor” on my artwork placard so I give them a heads up on my name. Annoying but we’re already here so there isn’t much else to do. We chat a bit. She wanted to hear about the nostalgic elements of my piece “Mancala” so I do my best. it was a calm few minutes of a conversation. then its done. She says i’ll have someone do a farsi voiceover of my part. While I prefer subbed over dubbed anime/tv, I was content.
We start our goodbyes, and then the curating artist offers to give me a ride to the train station - we all got drinks instead (it was like 1pm atp). It was act v cute - we were just chatting among ourselves, talking about the interviews, and our art. We talked about Palestine as well. One of the artists used to be a college professor, and she toured through Israel (2000s) for a bit with her son for work/research. Her son, however, has a darker complexion than the rest of his family.
They were moving through the checkpoints, and even with an American passport, IDF put their hands on him to restrain him. And hell hath no fury than a Persian mother crossed. So she grabbed the idf guy’s wrist and threatened him, and nearly brought in the US embassy. Huge flex tbh. They got through it quickly, and then never returned.
Lunch/drinks was nice tho - we were at a brewery. It’s safe to say my thoughts of the curating artist, Sarah, have changed for the best. She got me a drink too I was like ayyyy so I was on my best behavior lmao. and she drove me back to the train station + said I could connect w her and the other artist for something in dc (which i entirely forgot about until now damn lmao). I was gagged from respect atp.
Interview Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C8aUoWzQ9Y
And that was the gaggening at pars place. Idk what the lesson was, but its somewhere between j tough it out, and good things come with time. And don’t get butthurt on human error (i am still a lil butthurt)(j a lil teeny bit).
anyways, i am heading to miami in a few days for art basel so get hyped.
sincerely urs,
Faraz
ps. ahhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHH i’ve been overthinking too many things for too many weeks now. I miss making art. alas.
p.s.s. I have a lot of plans for stopmotions in the coming weeks. I wanna figure out how to get them in galleries/shows too. but i want to make some woodworks to get into physical shows too idk i feel lost. I wanna monetize more too, i think its time i got paid for this stuff lmao
no extra pics this time around, much love tho