bijan berahimi

3 of 13 collages from my solo show titled ‘Capitals’

19x25″, assorted risograph prints

Designers Talking at COMB Gallery in Milwaukee, May 2015

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On their own, Bijan Berahimi’s fluorescent printed one-sheets read as cheerful ruminations on identity, creativity, and commerce. They’re the kind of thoughts that populate a designer’s head on the daily: who I am I really making this for; am I having fun; is it ethical. The posters’ neon smiley faces and teardrop soccer balls might fool you into thinking these are easy questions to answer.

But Berahimi’s collages tell a different story—an anxious frenzy of illegible half-thoughts, broken hashtags, and dismembered palm trees.

Pierre Bourdieu’s species of capital (economic, symbolic, cultural, and social) play an important role in decoding the work on view and help pinpoint something universal to insatiable makers in the age of social media: the sometimes conflicting desires to create work that is true and meaningful and celebrated and profitable. Right? Wrong? IDK.

Los Angeles Collage

Transfer, 8.5x11