A Note on Rana Dehghan's Show at Delgosha Gallery

Artificial Souls, The Prison of "Spirit"

In the past, social interactions and the confrontation of the person with society happened more slowly; so individuals had enough time to adapt to the socially imposed norms and expectations and start to recognize their own position. However, today, due to the presence of social networks, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, people are just one click away from interacting with society. This has caused individuals to unceasingly confront a vast ever-changing society. In fact, through non-stop communication, social networks are consistently setting comparisons between their users and making them continuously encounter societal norms, expectations, and judgments. In this situation, individuals are gradually deprived of their ability to express their real selves, thus balancing their emotions, thoughts, and desires with those of the whole society.  Although emphasizing the individuality of every person and encouraging their users to express themselves, social networks are paradoxically dissolving individuals' identities.  
The recent show of artworks by Rana Dehghan, entitled   "Spirit", at Delgosha Gallery is an installation of ceramic souls and is representing the current status of this social issue: acceptable public behaviors are sententiously determined by the society, and specific feelings, thoughts, and private behaviors are indirectly imposed by it on individuals. This way, society owns people's individuality, captures their spirit, and then itself turns into a prison to confine feelings, thoughts, and real emotions. So Dehghan's ceramic souls are embodiments of these artificial souls with no identity that have covered and imprisoned her real but disintegrated spirit that consists of her real feelings and emotions.  
Clearly, these narrow dark prisons cannot endure the restless annoyed blue spirit of the artist, and they will eventually overflow.  
Sometimes it bursts from the soul's eyes as pink and blue tears...
Sometimes it is like a hand coming out of its mouth to ask for and, at the same time, give a caress...
And sometimes it bursts out of its eyes and mouth as a blue mass...