"In/Stasis": Sheida Soleimani at New York

From May 20 to 29, 2022, a group show titled "In/Stasis" was held in Artists Space, New York, where works by thirteen artists were displayed. Daría Sól Andrews, Sally Eaves Hughes, and Klaudia Ofwona Draber were the show's curators. The presented works have addressed subjects including the destruction of societies, lands, global resources, and anything under their control. With regard to location changes, the show has considered displacement not just geographically but also from a cultural, temporal, and infrastructural viewpoint. Sheida Soleimani and Farideh Sakhaeifar are among the artists presented in this show.  

Sheida Soleimani (b. 1990, Indiana) is an Iranian-American artist who creates multimedia works. Her family background is rooted in Iran and themes related to the Middle East are visible in some parts of her works. In the settings that she installs, she uses different media, including sculpture, pieces of digital prints, collages, objects, colors, lights, and photography. She deals with subjects that are mostly derived from her personal experiences, and other issues related to human rights, political refugees, and relations between societies are among her more prominent topics.  

A wide range of subjects and geographic issues, including extraction of natural resources in west Africa, rules related to Indian-Canadian people of decades ago, Columbia's industry, etc., are displayed in this show. Each artist has dealt with the show's main subject with a critical question. Sheida Soleimani's work "Dukhan Field" refers to a region in Qatar where a vast oil field is located. She has used green and khaki fabrics all over a photographic staged space in her installation. On these fabrics, collages that seem to be photographs of lands in the same region are installed. There are also protruding brown pipes, which are also drawn on the ground. In the bottom part of the installation, there is a naked body fully colored green. Next to it, a clean, shiny soccer ball is placed on the ground near cups filled with a white liquid. In an overall look, the artist's critical approach to the exploitation of oil-rich lands is discernable; an overuse that has marginalized human resources. Humans die and once again get prepared for exploitation later in another life cycle of nature; a vicious circle that keeps distancing them from their ideals. The scene before the viewer's eyes may remind them of Neo-Dadaism or works by Robert Rauschenberg, the American painter and graphic designer, who used collages in his mixed media works to produce creative and critical pieces.  

The visual content of the works displayed in this show is based on a quote from Rob Nixon, who writes about natural history: 

"…a more radical notion of displacement, one that, instead of referring solely to the movement of people from their places of belonging, refers rather to the loss…that leaves communities stranded in a place stripped of the very characteristics that made it inhabitable." 

"In/Stasis" tries to remind the audience of the consequences of this displacement so they can review its destructive effects. 

Cover and slider image: 

• www.fineartglobe.com  

• Sheida Soleimani | Dukhan Field | Qatar | 2018 | archival pigment print | (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Denny Dimin Gallery) 

• Artist's Instagram Account: @sheidajanam