Tannaz Farsi
B. 1974 Tehran, Iran, 1974
Lives and works in Eugene, Oregon
Using the language and history of sculpture, installation, and conceptual art practices, Tannaz Farsi’s work highlights and re-presents objects and images that contextually start from a collective experience found within the milieu of our cultural archive. Central to the work is the notion of fragmentation, structural blindness and individual agency. At PNCA, she uses the window, a median between public and private space, to list the names of 37 women currently held in Iranian jails for crimes that range from participating in protest rallies, insulting the supreme leader, blasphemy and spreading corruption on earth. In the composition, the names comprise the central list while the exterior columns catalog the crimes according to the state. This configuration follows a style of Iranian writing called tahshieh or hashieh nevisi which can loosely be translated as margin writing, allowing for parallel meanings to emerge. Her work has been supported through grants and awards from the Oregon Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, University of Oregon, and The Ford Family Foundation where she was named a Hallie Ford Fellow in 2014. She is on the faculty at the University of Oregon and co-chair of the Sculpture program.
Two works are featured in YOU IN MIND: an architectural intervention for PNCA and a light work for Disjecta.