[Art21 "Extended Play"]

["Tala Madani: Sketchbooks"]

When I'm working,

I draw in the mornings,
when I come to the studio

--Obama!
[LAUGHS]

There is this great story in Iran--

I think it was written in the '60s.

This is something that
every Iranian knows about.

It's called "'Shahr-e Gheseh"

which means
"the city of stories".

All the characters are animals.

And the prettiest character is this cockroach.

One of the parts of the story is that

this elephant who's new to town--

nobody knows her

and they are really bewildered by
its appearance.

And they start reshaping it.

They cut off the trunk in bits,

and then the elephant can't recognize itself,
of course--

it's sort of this loss of identity.

A lot of works from this show

were worked out more thoroughly in sketches.

It's the most immediate record
of a thinking process, isn't it?

This didn't make it.

This was too violent.

In a year, I'll come to something like this

that I didn't really work with in this show.

Some things in the sketchbooks
lead to the future works.

I think they're a great way of
keeping track of your ideas,

because you don't necessarily have time
or the space to investigate each idea

as fully as you'd want.

It's good to catch them

if you're in the space where ideas are flowing.

This is a sketch for "Dirty Protest".

So, in a way, I kind of knew this painting--

the image of it--
a long time in my head, I think.

So, the sketch of it was just, sort of,
a notation for me,

but I knew what I wanted to do.

The thing that's different with painting

is its materiality.

It's not to suggest at all that it's ever
about paint.

It's more about how do you use the material

to help you communicate the idea clearer.

If there's drips happening,

I really engage those drips
into bringing the audience

quite close to where I am.

That it's really about this idea again.

Let's not get too preoccupied with
a kind of

perspectival concern or depth concern.

That this is really paint speaking to you.

That messes with your read of space.

I really love this idea that
the painting itself has a life.

In a way, it's about transference of energy,
I really think.

There is this seventeenth-century idea
that paintings actually had souls,

and they were given souls by demons or angels--

and demons were not necessarily
a bad collaborator to have.

If anyone is interested in
looking at a painter at work,

you just have to follow the brushstrokes.

So, you're seeing the action of the hand,
but also the action of the thought,

ideally,

in following the brushstroke.