“So I wish you first a sense of theater;
only those who love illusion and know it will go far;
otherwise we spend our lives in confusion
of what we say and do with who we really are.” W.H. Auden

 

These series of smaller mezzotint is done as a follow up of a project that I did when I was working on my Etching series in Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerpen, Belgium in 2011.

The project was about  Iranian  women who become very active in virtual space.  The new generation in Iran, especially young women, are trying to speak up, and to be heard in a traditional society. Their voice has not been heard for a long time because they never felt safe to show who they really are. Because of the huge differences between their private life and public life, they could not speak about who they really are in public. Many restrictions has been exposed on them. Because of the revolution in new media, which has brought a new culture as well, they fell free to talk freely in a virtual space, the internet.
 I read and made notes from women’s diaries and weblogs, wrote about my own experiences and theirs and tried to depict them in my images.