Ask the Artist: Roshanak Keyghobadi

Please join us to as we host Roshanak Keyghobadi in the Faculty Center at FSC this semester and ask questions about her art.

Her works will be available all semester.

 

Bio:

Roshanak Keyghobadi, EdD, teaches art and design as well as global art and graphic design histories at the Visual Communications Department, Farmingdale State College (SUNY). She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA (Indiana University) and BFA (University of the Arts) are both in Graphic Design. She studied Visual Communication at Tehran University’s School of Fine Art prior to moving to the USA. Roshanak is a researcher and writes regularly about contemporary art and design history and artists in global context. Her essays have been published in the United States (AIGA Voice, Design Observer) and Iran (Neshan). She was also the managing editor of Graphis publications in New York City. Roshanak’s artworks have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and featured in books and magazines (Fiber Art Now) and newspapers (NYTimes). She just participated and presented at Revealing, Recording, Reflecting Conference 2022, which was focused on generations of women graphic designers from Southwest Asia and North Africa, and the diaspora. 

Statement:

Trained as a graphic designer, my works have always been about clarity, control, structure and simplicity. When I discovered paper making as an undergraduate student, I found its process and outcome in such contrast to my professional practice that I immediately was drawn to the organic, chaotic and liberating nature of it. I have always been engaged with language, writing and typography and narratives, sentences, words and letters are the main components of my art in any medium that I choose to work. 

My stitch series are my explorations in the realm of dichotomies. Through deconstructing a structured unit such as a book, newspaper or magazine and reconstructing it in a new form I search, find and create new contexts and meanings. When I tear apart a printed page, soak it in water, transform it to pulp and make a piece of paper again, the sentences become broken and words misplaced. Through this process I break apart the physical and intellectual nature of the written matter and reintroduce new possible poetic interpretations.  Hand stitching as a drawing tool and a ritual adds another dimension to my creative process which is unifying and meditative. With needle and thread I stitch together what is fragmented and dislocated and compose alternative visual possibilities. 

With the display of my works, The Faculty Center at Farmingdale State College has provided me an artistic and pedagogical space where I can share my art and start a dialog and communicate with students, colleagues and viewers to possibly spark new ideas or start collaborative projects as a result.