Carbon 12 exhibition

Art

We meet an artist whose subversive textiles are the talk of the town Discuss this article

Picture 1 of 2

Name: Sara Rahbar
Nationality: Unknown (she was exiled from Iran)
Age: 33

My process…
I began as a painter and I still feel as though I’m painting, because my current textile work is about colour, composition and communicating the stories that repeat themselves over and over in my mind. There is no specific formula regarding my approach – it’s not planned or calculated, but rather instinctual. Constructing these pieces is a very natural process: it’s an innate and deeply rooted feeling, and it’s almost as if it was ingrained within me. I just get flickers of colour and images in my mind, and slowly an idea begins to form. Then I have to give life to the piece as if my life depended on it. I create pieces that tell my stories. Through my work I’m recording history – my history.

Art should always…
There is nothing in this chaotic world that ‘should always’, but if I have to say something then art should be truth.

Art should never…
There’s no ‘never’ when it comes to art.

An artist’s responsibility is to…
Have total and complete freedom and self-expression.

If I wasn’t an artist, I’d be…
Dead.

Dubai is…
A world of its own.

Sara’s show, Whatever We Had to Lose We Lost, continues at Carbon 12 until May 10

By Nyree Barrett
Time Out Dubai, 5 May 2010

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Art