Artist Statement
My work responds to my own migrations and cultural shifts, and has lead to questions about where Middle Eastern and Iranian art belongs in a predominantly Eurocentric history of art. Sacred paintings from the major faiths: Christianity, Hinduism and Islam have particularly intrigued me, and lead to finding parallels in both their subject matter and language. For example, the archetypal descent into the underworld in Dante's Inferno can be compared to Mohamed's Night Journey and Christ's Anastasis. In this psychological realm, the body is examined as a psycho/bio/spiritual vehicle. and captures the incorporeal psyche. An example of reference images I incorporate as collaged elements in the work, are mined from Islamic Medical/Anatomical MS (C11th - 17th) and European (15th C. / Medieval) alchemical iconography, which reveal how psychic phenomenas project onto the physical realm. Rather than mere biological diagrams, they transcend the corporeal, and hint at attempts to locate the soul, wherein the body becomes a vehicle of psychological metaphors, portraying various embodied conflicts and dilemmas. My work is in the collections of : the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, British Government Art Collection, the Burger Collection, the Donald Rubin collection (Rubin Museum, NY) and the Grey Art Gallery at NYU.
Samira Abbassy - Topology of a Manic Episode - 2024 - Oil on birch panel - 48x36 inches Photo Credit: Jeanette May