Brilliant Ideas Episode #24: Ali Banisadr

The Iran-Iraq War, one of the fiercest conflicts in the 20th century, broke out when the artist was 4. The war that had lasted for 8 years made his family leave Iran and to move to Turkey and finally to California, U.S. Though his recollection of the war is only fragmentary childhood memories, his experience greatly affects his artworks until now. However, it is not that, he is stuck in the past and only depicts the scars of the war. His early works were concentrated on reviving the scenes of the war and his childhood memories. Moreover, were about the reasons war has to occur and the pain people have to suffer which were represented through various colors and control of pictorial techniques. Afterwards, he started to take interest in wider subjects such as political issues, history, books, and art. From the books he read and big and small events on the paper and the news he encounters to the movies and music he recently enjoyed, he takes every experience and every event happening around him and makes it into the subject of his works by directly and indirectly mixing it with his experiences as a child.

Banisadr has an exceptional synesthetic capability. Synesthesia refers to a neurological phenomenon in which various senses are combined in an unusual way. The artist has an outstanding talent in making sounds into images. Having realized his capability early when he could make drawings out of the bombing sounds he heard as a child, he is very proud of his special talent.
Banisadr says that he never thinks over which shape should be put where, and which color should be used when he paints. He always starts from listening to sounds when making artworks: after recreating sounds into images to some extent, he develops the work based on a book he has been reading or a subject he has been interested to deepen the work. As red reminds one of fire and flowing water reminds one of blue, every sound reminds him of a certain image or color. His works, therefore, seem to play a measure of music. The artist does not, however, recreate sounds on the canvas merely according to the feeling the sounds are giving. He performs endless experiments and efforts for a better image and delivery such as adjusting the direction of the strokes or the amount of light and oil. By borrowing the style of Persian miniature painting to combine with his paintings, he aims to present unique images.

Iranian artist Ali Banisadr moved to California when he was a child. Though he lived in Iran for a short time, the memories of Iran provide ideas to Banisadr’s art activities. That’s why almost all his works are based on his childhood. Especially, the images which Banisadr created are influenced by experiences as a refugee from the Iran-Iraq war and the Iran Revolution. Moreover, his memories combined with Persian mythology have created images which have both sides; abstract and representative.
Born in 1976 Ali Banisadr lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York and the New York Academy of Art, he has had several solo exhibitions including exhibitions at the Galerie Thaddeus Ropac in Paris, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York and Sperone Westwater, New York. Now he is working to expand his field to participate in many group exhibitions in U.S, Italy, Belgium, U.K, France, and Dubai.