Paintings by Nilofar Mehrin
He released the two seas, meeting [side by side] v19
Between them is a barrier [so] neither of them transgresses v20
.So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny? v21
From both of them emerge pearl and coral.v22
Later on i saw a documentory which was on this subject and indeed there are entire rivers running beneath the waters of the ocean ! I dont have this painting and perhaps i left it in my house in Spain when i came to France in 2013 .
"The Here and Now" the painting bellow ...... curtesy of Steven Mathews ........ is one of the first big canvases and paintings which "happened", like in Action Painting . At the time it was a sexual compensation .... it was 1984 and i was 25 and i wanted to be a painter instead of being a woman 'which i thought was very limiting and the men where mostly not easy to get on with .... or it was probably the other way round ! )
I had the idea of the hands printing colour because i had read that primitive cave men had expressed themselves this way and a lot of such prints were found in the caves in all continents .... i painted in my room in via delle Cinque Giornate in Florence .... one visitor said that he thought "the dark" movement of colour in the middle of the painting was phalic ... but i interpreted it as " the phalic movement" of a "vagina" ' i didnt do it on purpose ....
it was a totally spontaneous creation and i thought that all such painting was coming from the body itself and not from the mind .... i had so much energy and i wasnt having a good relation,ship with the man in my life ie Guido . He didnt understand me at all but he said that he could read me like a book ! I could not believe he denied sexuality to be a good thing .... i should have known he was looking for some one smaller and more feminine ....
This painting in acrilic ie "Here and now" was given as a gift to Steven Mathews , my theatrical friend who was performing in Teatro del Cestello with his friend Jeff .... I admired Steven for his British sense of humour and he had the most enchanting eyes and eyebrows which put him in with the Pre Raffaellite models .... i never told him this .... he was spoilt by the girls . Infact i did want to do theater with their group but i was very timid and could nt overcome my limits .
I will always remember Jeff because he told Steve to lend me his PC so that i could write ..... it was encouraging me to write and that i found was very generous of him . They were both very attractive but for some reason i felt we were worlds and aons appart ....
because i could find a common ground with Italians since catholicism is an oriental mixture of beliefs similar to middle eastern ones .... where the modern mentality of the British and the Americans culture doesnt embrace any of the old world mentality (other than the jewish tradition) . I could relate perfectly to Tal who was an Isreali man who came to Joans book group . He had all the codes .... both from the jewish traditions and from the new world ....
"Jallais me donner d'un je vous aime quand je m'avisai nons sans peine que d'abored je ne me possedais pas moi meme !"
This was a painting was done in '90 .... i was thinking of Philippe le Duc the painter who went to the Cecil school
when i put this poem around it ....
here was the french painter Francesca and me came to know in Spazio Uno cultural center in via del sole in Florence .... He had come to this cinema with his iranian friend Faramarz who was 25 while we were both closer to thirty .
Francesca was a prescious friend , just 22 and we were preparing for an english lit exam and this poem was something i had found in her book and it really described what i felt about my love life. it was as if some one was controlling it .... Even tho Guido was the one who was in my life and had given me a lot of warmth in his attitude .... my aspiration was a life in Art and i felt that people like philippe were unreachable for me .... because he was a painter who lived in a small studio in a villa near poggio Imperiale .... i knew i couldnt have this high maintenance person who made me feel inferior and had to continue with my university degree .
Mr Enzo Lenzetti who was a friend of Fiorella my neigbour in via Delle Cinque Giornate bought it , i loved this painting very much and wouldn't have sold it if i didnt have to .... i wondered if i had to walk the narrow path in life all through my life ..... many years later i was happy that God saved me from making a very negative decision in pursuing my obsession with Philippe . An American friend observed that i had been lucky not to pursue him ..... but it was very difficult and i was wasting my time for about ten years struggling with the shadows .... i concluded that Guido had been the real one , but very irresponsable !
"MY Time"
Is a a painting which was in the sme line with Jallais me donner ....
what i learnt from meeting Philippe was: " that our time on earth is very limited and you have be carefull to invest it well "
Each little application of colour was like capturing each moment and putting it down as colour on canvas .... there is a song i wrote to go with this concept .... ie capturing the moments of one's time !
This "Rough Sea" is a painting in acrilic on canvas done at the same time as "Here and Now" both done in 1987 in via delle Cinque Giornate .... i did make it when i met an australian boy who told me that he had a phone in his car where he lived .... i was sooo impressed with this .... i wanted to move to australia because it seemed to offer the future ... infact the future became " a telephone wielding " period ... this painting was about how confused i felt about my situation at the time . Guido had met a woman and was having
a secret life and i was having difficulty with studying ....
Later on i wrote a poem saying : "Oh Life , you are like the waves .....
I sold this painting to an American/Danish couple who lived in house with huge walls and they sent me pictures of them on their walls .... I sold a couple of large paintings to him when he found me working in my studio and Atelier in via Fiesolana
This was acrilic on canvas .... the ideal family and happiness seemed to be what i was living right then and there . I gave this huge acrilic painting to Dottoressa Alessandro in 1998
"The night of the Angels" Leylath-al-qadr"
Indeed, We sent the Qur'an down during the Night of Decree.
And what can make you know what is the Night of Decree
The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter.
Peace it is until the emergence of dawn.
This is one of the first works when i used foglio d'oro and this was because when i met Cristiana Amendola ; she taught me the tecnique of Gold Leaf 1990 ... I was envious of Cristiana because appart from her being a capable painter and restorer of art works , she was a beautiful and successful 30 year old who was sincere in her womanhood and respected other women !
She had already been married to a french man (but divorced) and she was an attractive girl friend who Philippe liked (but she was in a relationship with some one she married ). She pretty much had everything i had wanted ! But i had my religious practice and that i guess balanced it out !
"Joseph's story" 1989
There is a whole chapter in the Holy Koran on the prophet Joseph who had had a vision of his future in Egypt . It was an unlikely dream that he dreampt and he spoke of it lightly probably because he didn't believe in it himself .... for me this picture talks about all the pieces of the puzzle having to come together. Before a dream comes true a lot of things have to happen . I didnt believe in dreams much but then the revolution in Iran changed everything for me and it was a way of trying to know what would happen next. Since in the Koran God says that souls go to him while they are sleeping, dreams are taken seriously.
I had had a first major dream in 1981 when i was staying with my relatives. I had dreamt that there was a celebration in town and all sorts of beautiful things were displayed and there was lots of food on a common table and lots to eat and drink for everyone present , the table went on and on in all the streets of this small town , and i was following it , then i met my brother who was sitting and reading the news papers and there were stacks and stacks of them .... and he was sad because the news papers seperated us and the party was not going to last for ever !
then in another dream some years ago ; i saw soldiers clad in green army clothes in every street of a peaceful city and trying to get into every house and in every corner .... you didnt know why they were there and who they were representing .... they had no proper rules and had an incomprehensible anarchist behaviour . I saw my uncle Ismile running from them .... (i think both these dreams are about surveillance)
"The Sun In The Subconscious" 1989
"Time Zones" is a painting that i took with me to Berlin and i left it in an Art Gallery there .... and i dont remember the name of the gallery ! 1991
"Sex is Everywhere ! Thank God for Ideas (ie Books) !"
Curtesy of Patrizia Antonini .... this painting is about sexuality , but mainly as in nature in general ..... every creature is trying to reproduce itself .... and i use some of my knowledge about Biology studied at school / I love the sea , and this painting is one which i would have kept , but not having a house or money i gave it to my dear friend Patrizia who was a 23 year old when i met her at Uni ... she had just written her Thesis on the Feminist interpretation of Fairy tales of Perrault . She helped me finish university by allowing me to use her PC to write my dissitation .
Personal Computers came out just around the 90's and only the rich could afford them and she had one in her appartment and i was allowed to go to her place everyday to use her PC to write my book . I was also allowed to use her list of books on the subject. just about then we heard that Angela Carter had died. When i told Guido, he thought it was some sort of sign!
Guido didnt believe me to be a femminist .... because he found them to be aggressive women . Patrizia could be pretty aggressive because she was a sports woman and that gave her a sort of self confidence which i certainly didnt have. Infact when she left her Police officer boyfriend i thought it unbelievable ! The reason she said was because he had beenof the opinion that if they had a daughter he wouldnt push her to get through university because "girls got married and found a husband who would look after them" ie girls didnt need to get a career! The femminist in her , having heard this, made up her mind that she couldnt marry himfor his opinion !
For me her warmth and friendship were a true God send and i was to observe her young life as a by stander. She has had the authentic interest in women and women's issues and has been working as a journalist for many years . Her husband and her daughter follow her in the countries where she is assigned .
"The Balance "
1985
"A Letter from Sarajevo"
1993/95
Who expected the war in Bosnia to happen ? Ex yugoslavia and what happened there will never go away now that the soviets and their mind sets have conquered space in the American Democratic hearts . But i dont trust the equality they want to sell , simply because i dont choose to forget about what they did to the female population of Bosnia ..... not to speak of the 8000 men and boys who were executed in cold blood while they were hoping that it wouldnt happen to them !
Women used as " weapons of war" in the recent european war in ex yugoslavia
An estimated 12,000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak.[26][296] This has been referred to as "Mass rape",[297][298][299]particularly with regard to the coordinated use of rape as a weapon of war by members in the VRS and Bosnian Serb police.[297][298][299][300]For the first time in judicial history, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) declared that "systematic rape", and "sexual enslavement" in time of war was a crime against humanity, second only to the war crime of genocide.[297] Rape was most systematic in Eastern Bosnia (e.g. during campaigns in Foča and Višegrad), and in Grbavica during the siege of Sarajevo. Women and girls were kept in various detention centres where they had to live in intolerably unhygienic conditions and were mistreated in many ways including being repeatedly raped. A notorious example was "Karaman's house" in Foča.[301][302] Common complications among surviving women and girls include psychological and other physical disorders, as well as unwanted pregnancies
These two political pictures about Sarajevo and about Bosnia dont mean anything now because people choose to forget the madness and try to get on with their life when it is possible ..... but there was the man who thought of all the mischief and everyone was looking for him while he was living a quiet life in his back garden ie Radovan Karadzic , He had some good friends watching out for him and protecting him.
Wiki says : Croat–Bosniak War that escalated in early 1993.[13] The Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb,[14] and to a lesser extent, Croat[15] and Bosniak[16] forces. Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict.
Radovan Karadžić (left), former president of Republika Srpska, Ratko Mladić (right), former Chief of Staff of the Army of the Republika Srpska, both sentenced by the ICTY.
"Something Happening in Space"
This is one of the first paintings i ever sold and it was to a friend of a friend . A woman from Puglia who had come to visit and i could only tell her that it was about space ... and i loved the freshness of the colours in it, (1986)
"Il contatto interstellare"
why should we doubt that there are living creatures out in space ... just because we dont see them ?
"The Contact"
I adore this painting because it reminds me of "Star Treck" and Space science fiction films ..... it could even be like the screen to my personal space ship floating in outer space ....
This painting was sold in the Mondo Arte Gallery in Dubai (in the Kempinskij Mall) in 2008 by Roberto a very kind young man from Milan who was working to sell the Art work and he told me that "The Contact " had been bought by an American . He would plead with the woman incharge to pay the artists because Rafaella the manager would be taking her sweet time ..... At Mondo Arte Gallery there was also Anna Maria Bersani from Genova who was an artchitect and who sold many other of my paintings , sadly Mondo Arte closed in 2010!
" Da Sein" or "Esserci" ( Being "here" in english )
1990
I liked this painting which has a name taken from Heideger 's philosophy "Dasein" . If you look at the lower central part you will see a shadow and that is me pouring over the canvas while i am working on it . This is me at the age of 32 . Still confident that i could win ! That the "future" held lots of good things ... i was wrong because the future held "surveillance witha big S and lots of "limitations" . I wanted more freedom , and freedom was living just next door to my room and he was called Peter.
This Painter was from LA and i had rented out a room to him in the Cinque Giornate appartment. He had just come in from Holland where he said he had sold some of his art work. He used to listen to music a lot and i heard all of "Red Hot Chili Peppers" music streaming out of his room . I was overwhelmed when he said that he wanted to go to visit Iran with me ! It was just too much and anyway probably impossible. At this point i was uninterested in any form of relationship and off he went with Vanessa , the young 20 year old who was one of my guests too . He believed in Art with a capital A.
"Cosmopolitan Time"
I loved this painting which i thought was like a fountain of life and inspired by persian carpets ..... the movement and the musicality in this picture is unique and happened by chance ... nothing in the colours of this painting was planned expect for the structure and the design .
"La musica e il silencio"
I have written about this painting in a book called A Time For Dreamers"
"Extasis"
"The Organic Flow"
This painting was called Ofelia because i had painted the girl from a picture lying in the water .... but then it got transformed from negative to positive because i found my idea of the fountain within .... and the refreshing flow of water .... and
i chose the name Nile ie Nilo in Italian which is an abreviation of my name .... like my favorite painter HundertWasser with his bizantine colours .... a painter of flowing waters .....
"Existence"
I have written about this painting in the book "A Time for Dreamers"
Panorama subacquea
Arc en Ciel
This was a painting that happened after having watched a film about a woman painter who saw further than the people around her and who was a visionary creative person . Generally it is hoping for a better future and looking forward to it.
"The Inshallah Cards" This is a print which i made in the via Fiesolana studio in 1998
Inshallah Cards : Il Ponte is an engraving printed at Victoria's engraving studio in Piazza Peruzzi 1990
Inshallah Cards
Inshallah Cards
Dialogue !
Two girls who made a film about my life in the studio in via Fiesolana .
Hanging sculpture 1996
On display in a few exhibits in Florence one of which was with the gallery DEA in Borgo Pinti 1998
One of the best pictures of the hanging sculptures ( 2m x2m) which my brother helped me paint and prepare in 2000, this was stolen from my garden outside of Torrevieja where i had put it on display in the south of Spain in 2012
Hanging sculpture 1996
Hanging sculpture as a work in progress 1997 in via delle Cinque Giornate
The Higgeldy Piggeldy Bag made of coloured iron strings 2015
This bag was stolen from a deposit where i paid a monthly fee to keep it safe. It was on display in the Adzak Art Space in Paris for some months .
via Fiesolana Studio and Atelier 1998
In my studio in 1998 with one of my first clients who bought cards and paintings !
watercolour 2006
Karachi post card
curtesy of Marina di Iasio 1990
"Aboriginal Dream Time" curtesy of Lorenzo Lenzetti 1995
A Big Canvas painting which i sold through a shop called Babele
. The year 2000 was an excellent year for me .... my brother Taher came to visit me during Xmas and i wish we had had the same ideas . I had worked on a big wire hanging object which he painted with his expert hands .... but this "hanging object" i took to Spain and it was stolen from my front garden in a place called Punta Prima! Some people probably wanted money for it , thinking that i was rich but not knowing that i had debts because i was trying to create a B&B there . Even tho such stupid acts of disrespect and ignorance are common ever since the wall came down , it does not mean that they cure anything .... i havent done stuff like that all through my poverty and this just prooves that there can be positive solutions as well .....
Laura sold several of my big canvases through the years and so did Donatella in her boutique Antica Baccani .... These paintings were all interiors with the theme of a room with a view. I had spent so many of my years indoors looking out of windows , that it was a true life experience!
These are my beloved pets Mooshie and Mooshina .... Sonia had found Mooshie and gave her to me as a gift and we were together then for more than fifteen years .... probably 17 and Mooshina was one of her kittens which i kept .... When Morag a scottish teenager of 18 came into my life in 1997 , she instantly fell in love with the cat , and i dont blame her . Mooshie was very charming and all the neigbours were following her with bowls of food and after her with perfumes in order to get her all "Chanel "ed up .... she had a great time being everyone's pet ..... he mother came to visit and she bought a porteait of Mooshie which is now probably near Edinborough somewhere. Mooshina was different altogether , much less bright , and more of a huntress , she would catch all sorts of small animalls and big insects and bring them to me as gifts .... once i found a giant grasshopper at my feet and i am only glad that it didnt hop around . Mooshie would bring leaves from trees , but once , just because she saw me on my books , she brought me some books of poetry and one very important one called " Ivan The Terrible" . This was a sign because i adored this film by Eisenstein and it meant a lot to me .... some one must have sent it to me on purpose !
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