Venus On Hafte Tir Squar :

To the Hafte Tir Squre for it is a silent witness of many bloodsheds & To the bloody pain, which drips from your escaped hair strands:

Crushed, smashed
Then vanished from my chest
This pain that grows in me

I turned a page or two
Looking for a relief in words foreign to my soul
I looked for you
In the greenish ink you’ve never written me with

What I had in me of you was a pain
A flaming pain in black
And not Orange as you had always wished.

Not orange like freedom
But black like me

Oh my!
Oh my!
Am I ever going to be free?
Oh my!
Am I ever going to be?

Then
When it comes
I will call myself the most beautiful names you have ever imagined
Then
When it is to be
I will color myself the most enchanting colors you have ever wished

Then
I will be me!

Venus On Sixth Avenue, By James Guy, 1937

Waitress; an Homage to Chaplin !

Lying on my bed, balancing Bibi-Huryeh on my bent knees, typing these words while fighting my excessive headache at least proves that I am a multi-task being. At the same time I am taking a mental note that I should take 2 tablet of Advil before I lose the grounds to my headache.

To give you more proof to me being A Multi-task Being: I am also thinking about Waitress (2007) directed by Adrienne Shelly*. How good the movie was, is not relevant here (well, of course it is relevant; you should definitely see it.) but what I want to say is: how much it reminded me of Charles Spenser Chaplin. It was not only the last shot that was an obvious homage to Chaplin but also details in each scene were a constant reminder of Chaplin. The story is as simple, as sad, and at the same time as funny as the suspense of reality is in Charley’s films. Because of Waitress, once more, I came to realize that I miss Chaplin's works very much and that I should never stop watching them.

Now I have to include “I-Am-Losing-The-Battle Pie” to my menu and place it after “Sleepy-Girl Pie” and before “I-Murderer-Me Pie". You will understand the past sentence soon after seeing the movie.

Waitress, 2007

* Shelly also plays beautifully as Dawn in this film.

PS. Adrienne Shelly was murmured on November First in 2006, while making Waitress.

We Are Over !

It is over

The frown of your pain into my veins
The kiss of your reflection into my eyes

We are over !

A glass of wine filled with
The broken ruby petals of our lust
A mercury mirror shattered
By faraway dreams of a long vanished image.

The image of you, holding me close
You, holding me close ...
You, holding me close ...

Holding me Close
Out of an unknown horror
Out of an unforgettable shiver.

The image of us
Long lost in our lust.

The image of you, holding me close
As close as glass holds mercury for the mirror.
The image of me roaming your lips
As brave as a nomad roams the mountain.

You, holding me close
It is all over!

We are over.


*This picture is a painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker called Girl with cat in the Birkenwald (Mädchen mit Katze im Birkenwald) from 1904.

What Are The Great Transparents?

Who is Kurt Seligmann? - Kurt Seligmann was a Swiss born surrealist artist and a member of surrealist circle. André Breton founded surrealism in 1924 when he wrote his first - out of three - manifestos of surrealism. Among surrealists we know more about painters such as Salvador Dali, André Masson, René Magritte and Marcel Duchamp, Seligmann is an unknown figure. Despite this fact he worked, exhibited and was a member of surrealist group.

The Great Transparent is part of the title of one of his painting: Melusine & the Great Transparent. The phrase had also appeared as the title of the epilogue of the Third Manifesto of Surrealism that Breton wrote in 1942. My paper explores the meaning of The Great Transparents in Seligmann’s painting and also it studies its relationship to Breton’s writings.

To sum it up for Breton the Great Transparents are [and I quote Kurt Seligmann and the Notion of the Great Transparents by Najafi, R.*]: “horrible creatures that cannot be controlled by man and he criticized people who instead of finding a way to fight those Great Transparents, recompense them by transforming them into a modern and a new myth.” such as Hitler. And for Seligmann The Great Transparents are [and I quote Kurt Seligmann and the Notion of the Great Transparents*] “not horrible transparent creatures but are great transparent goddesses. The wrapped up water, a live spring of river, refers to a twisting force of the transforming world. Thus maybe it is not so strange that he chose this title simply to refer to the transparency of pure, clear water, which gives the feeling of safety to an anxious soul.”

Melusine & The Great Transparents
Kurt Seligmann, 1943

*Najafi, R. “Kurt Seligmann and the Notion of the Great Transparents” CUNY at Brooklyn College Desertion for MA in Art History & Criticism.

Graduate Student Symposium:

This is the announcement for what kept me occupied in the last two weeks:

"Tomorrow (Wed.) May 9,
Brooklyn’s own MAs Roja Najafi and Jessica Pepper
are speaking as part of a graduate student symposium
in Woody Tanger Auditorium at the library,
at 5:00 pm.
Come hear about their interesting research! "

Kurt Seligmann

&
The Notion Of
The Great Transparents*

* This is the title of my talk and the plural form of Transparent(s) is important in it.

Happy May First!

To my Parents for their anniversary and their endless love. To my brother without whom I can not bear this distance for a breath:

I have lived in garden houses long enough to never forget the exciting gap between the red bricks of the wall and the blue tiles of our small pool. I sat there for hours, leaning against the bricked wall dipping my bare feet in the cold water. Surrounded by the scent of fig and apple, hidden between two rows of walnut trees I thought of the garden’s crimson Iron Gate.

Every morning while doing my routine; fighting over some sour cherries with a cattle of wild parrots new to our garden, opening the brook’s passage to water the vegetable garden, I would run to the Iron Gate, open it and fix a pair of huge black rocks on its foot to keep the gate open. Then I would stay there waiting for dad to come so we could walk to the bakery.

I have dreamed of the Iron Gate and the black rocks, thousands of times, since I moved deep into this distance.
I have the dream two oceans away from the garden and you.
I have the dream when I was sitting on a bench next to a manmade lake in a scattered forest surrounding the row buildings, one of which I live in.
I dream of the Iron Gate and I wished I had never opened it.
I wished I had stayed there with mom, dad and you.
I wished I had never left without dad, you and mom.
I wish I had waited at the crimson of the Iron Gate for you, all, to come.

Happy May First!