audrey | sf,ca

“Should we just watch one sunset? Or live just one day? Because it’s new every time. Each time is a different experience.”

Mona Hakimi-Schüler was born in 1977, two years prior to Iran’s Islamic Revolution…. She didn’t tell us specifically about her decision to move from Iran to Germany, but despite being in a different geographical and socio-political territory, the subject matter and style of her works revolve around Iran and her childhood memories that saw both the Islamic Revolution and the eight years of the Iraq-Iran War. 

These memories became the raw materials of several of her works such as Self-portraits (2007), a series of 12 paintings that express the extreme contradictions of female attire, from the simple traditional hijab to the fashionable pairing of the cloth with pink sunglasses or a spaghetti strap dress. For this particular series, the artist discusses the struggle in Iranian society to adjust to western culture with clothes being used as the medium. 

Mame Camara photographed by Julia Noni for Nataal Magazine Spring/Summer 2018