August 5-28, 2016

Wayward Passages

In Persian you “see” dreams, in English you “have” them. Do we observe or possess dreams?
Dreams and works of art are and aren’t true. They both challenge reality, trying to replace what is with what might be, and generate an altered state of consciousness. They are both fleeting and lend themselves to interpretation.
In this body of work, I am exploring these concepts by giving my dreams a physicality that exists independent of me. I use the dream imagery to access and possibly unleash authentic human experiences.
Dreams here have an existence independent of, and external to, the dreamer.

Bahar Jalehmahmoudi is an Iranian-American artist who works as an installation artist and sculptor. She received her B.A in 2009 from San Diego State University, and her MFA in studio art in 2013 from University of Maryland, College Park. As an artist who grew up in Iran, her artworks reexamine freedom, femininity, identity, and humanity. Her mixed media works transform recycled and found materials often associated with femininity into constructed assemblages. While the materials she utilizes are quite familiar, even commonplace, the densely layered forms she creates blur the boundaries of form and function, body and space, seduction and revulsion. Her work celebrates femininity through the socio-cultural mirror of Persian artistic culture. It originates in personal experiences, but ultimately addresses universal artistic, political and social ideas and aspirations.