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(ethereal music)

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- Can I sit here?

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Nice day, no?

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(bright music)

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You want one?

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(bright music)

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I think if you tell your
parents, I want to be a clown,

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there is that quality of, oh no.

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Is it possible that's also
the case with an artist,

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like, oh no, don't go that direction.

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There is this risk of if your
work is funny or humorous,

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people don't take it seriously.

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(bright music)

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Forget about a serious artist,

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they don't even think you're an artist ,

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they think you're a clown, you know?

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(bright music)
(cardboard thuds)

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So I think that's the kind of fear that I,

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at some point I recognized

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that maybe it was stopping
me from what I wanted to do.

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So I was like, what will
happen if I'm also the clown?

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As an artist, you can't escape

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not pointing the camera
or the finger at yourself.

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So I try to exaggerate that aspect,

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so then I will be allowed
to also exaggerate

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everything else about the society.

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(bright music)

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By doing that, I hope it'll allow the work

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to be seen as not myself,
but what's surrounding me,

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the spectators of this circus.
(bright music)

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I love that tension of who
gets to tell more truths,

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is it a clown in a circus
who can criticize a society

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or a serious artist, let's
say, or a serious politician?

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(bright music)

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When you come to my studio,
there are very distinct,

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different works existing
next to each other.

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One thing about the realistic painting

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is that it takes a longer time,
it's more labor intensive,

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in contradiction to this very quick

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stage of the cartoonish work.

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They are living on two different stages,

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extremely slow, extremely fast,

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extremely detailed, extremely un-detailed,

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extremely skilled, and very
de-skilled version of them

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in the cartoonish form.

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That kind of analogy has found
its way all over my work.

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There is always this sense of

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two things contradicting each other.

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There is two energy, there is a clash

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of two totally different things

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resisting against each other,

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and that's how the affect of
what I'm producing is made.

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It kind of tries to resist to this,

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maybe desire from the
society to see you as one,

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to frame you as one.

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And I don't want to be that.
(soft music)

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In 2008, I was living in Iran,
my path was on another route.

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(spray gun hissing)

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When I was growing up in Tehran,

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with the educational
system I had gone through,

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there are limitations, you know?

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What can you be, what
can you do, you know?

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Almost like just be happy
with what you are given.

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I was supposed to be an aerospace engineer

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and I remember I fell in love with cinema

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and with filmmaking.

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The Iranian filmmakers
that I would think about,

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I had imagined, like, how
the directors are writing

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and coming up with the stories,

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telling the stories of us back to us.

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(soft music)

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I realized, oh my god,

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there is a world even
more free than filmmaking,

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which is the visual art.

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And I knew at that point

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that I'm going to be a visual artist.

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Do you want?

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Here.

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Lemme just do it for you.
(lighter flicking)

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What I like to imagine

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is that everything I make in
the studio, it comes to life.

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It gives like that soul to it

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when it's on display to the public.

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Oh, this is bad.

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Oh, this is bad.

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It's bad for your health too.

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(soft music)

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The Breakers is one of the
grandest mansions of Newport.

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It has been turned to a museum

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and it's the first time
a contemporary exhibition

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is being set up inside.

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(soft music)

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I pick the head, I will
ask you to hold it,

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or any one of you guys
that they are there.

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You will hold it, I will have my hammer.

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- So once he puts

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- Yes.
- the pieces down,

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then we go out and get the food.

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- Exactly.
- Exactly.

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- The people you have been serving,

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you just come between them and
you will use your flashlight.

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It's totally fine to suddenly sit down

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and look under the table

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or look at the elephant.
- Okay.

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We're looking for something.

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- Yeah, searching for something.

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Exactly.

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A lot of my performance

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have this sense of like a dream scenario.

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Things being tiny bit funny,
and things being tiny bit sad

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or out of place.

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You want to laugh at it
and you might feel bad

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by laughing at the artist.

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I like that confusion
of, hey, what's going on?

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Forcing everyone present in the room

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to take on a role of performing
as part of the night.

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Dinner is something always
happens at the exhibitions

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after opening, and I
wanted that dinner actually

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to be the center part of the exhibition.

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I have made a ceramic head shape

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of every guest with their face on it,

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to turn their heads into
plate and bowl for the night.

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I'm gonna break the guests' heads.

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♪ It's time that we give it up ♪

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(hammer clanging)

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♪ It just feels like wind ♪

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It'll put all of them to do something

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that maybe they weren't expecting

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to be doing, you know?

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(people chattering)

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- [Hadi] As much as a critique of society,

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the critique of the art world,

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it's a critique of the
artist, meaning myself too.

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I'm always also the butt
of the joke, you know?

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(soft music)

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When you're in public,
you are taking chances

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of people acting or responding

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in a way that you had not imagined.

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- Can I be in the movie?
- Sure, you can.

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Looks like him, no?

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Do you wanna have this one?
- Mm-hmm.

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(bright music)

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- [Hadi] Bye.

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It kind of frees you,

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allowing chance to play a role.

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It allows for that de-skilled-ness,

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for that imperfection to reappear again.

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(bright music)