“Painting requires a fearlessness to explore with endless curiosity.”
About
Abstraction, for Hashemi, is where the real fun is. A codified language, the idea that a simple line can communicate so much, with so little, is enthralling. The angle, the colour, the thickness, the opacity, the curvature all leave clues about the artists’ intentions. Opened to a multitude of interpretations and entry points, abstraction engages audiences in a way that is uniquely relevant to each person, making artistic narratives more democratic and accessible.
It lives outside a specific time and place, operates on different planes. That all things can be reduced to basic elements such as colour, line and composition, is thrilling. It is like living on a different plane, where dimensions are revealed as vibrations, as strings, holding together a flimsy, humming structure – about to unravel at any moment. Through abstraction, there is always another level, a new way to be in the world.
For Mariam, painting requires a fearlessness. It means facing the world with the same fearless curiosity like a child, moving forward with the same natural agility like a bird in flight. It is recognizing the absurdity of the whole enterprise, like a fool, deeply grateful for the sacred experience, like a sage.
It is a humbled approach to exploring new frontiers while whispering to oneself ‘I don’t know where this will lead, I don’t know if it will bear fruit, I am going to go because I must, and I will see.’
To Hashemi, art is discovery with grit and resilience. It takes a series of failures and epiphanies, persevering through darkness in order to reach light. Sharing her work with others is whole other experience. The paintings she likes are not always the ones others appreciate. As an artist, she paints for herself, motivated by an intrinsic drive. There are feelings of exposure, vulnerability and insecurity as a private and solitary activity is put on display for the world to see.