(ethereal music)

- Can I sit here?

Nice day, no?

(bright music)

You want one?

(bright music)

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

there is that quality of, oh no.

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

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

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

people don't take it seriously.

(bright music)

Forget about a serious artist,

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

they think you're a clown, you know?

(bright music)
(cardboard thuds)

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

at some point I recognized

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

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

As an artist, you can't escape

not pointing the camera
or the finger at yourself.

So I try to exaggerate that aspect,

so then I will be allowed
to also exaggerate

everything else about the society.

(bright music)

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

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

the spectators of this circus.
(bright music)

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

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

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

(bright music)

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

different works existing
next to each other.

One thing about the realistic painting

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

in contradiction to this very quick

stage of the cartoonish work.

They are living on two different stages,

extremely slow, extremely fast,

extremely detailed, extremely un-detailed,

extremely skilled, and very
de-skilled version of them

in the cartoonish form.

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

There is always this sense of

two things contradicting each other.

There is two energy, there is a clash

of two totally different things

resisting against each other,

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

It kind of tries to resist to this,

maybe desire from the
society to see you as one,

to frame you as one.

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

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

(spray gun hissing)

When I was growing up in Tehran,

with the educational
system I had gone through,

there are limitations, you know?

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

Almost like just be happy
with what you are given.

I was supposed to be an aerospace engineer

and I remember I fell in love with cinema

and with filmmaking.

The Iranian filmmakers
that I would think about,

I had imagined, like, how
the directors are writing

and coming up with the stories,

telling the stories of us back to us.

(soft music)

I realized, oh my god,

there is a world even
more free than filmmaking,

which is the visual art.

And I knew at that point

that I'm going to be a visual artist.

Do you want?

Here.

Lemme just do it for you.
(lighter flicking)

What I like to imagine

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

It gives like that soul to it

when it's on display to the public.

Oh, this is bad.

Oh, this is bad.

It's bad for your health too.

(soft music)

The Breakers is one of the
grandest mansions of Newport.

It has been turned to a museum

and it's the first time
a contemporary exhibition

is being set up inside.

(soft music)

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

or any one of you guys
that they are there.

You will hold it, I will have my hammer.

- So once he puts

- Yes.
- the pieces down,

then we go out and get the food.

- Exactly.
- Exactly.

- The people you have been serving,

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

It's totally fine to suddenly sit down

and look under the table

or look at the elephant.
- Okay.

We're looking for something.

- Yeah, searching for something.

Exactly.

A lot of my performance

have this sense of like a dream scenario.

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

or out of place.

You want to laugh at it
and you might feel bad

by laughing at the artist.

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

Forcing everyone present in the room

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

Dinner is something always
happens at the exhibitions

after opening, and I
wanted that dinner actually

to be the center part of the exhibition.

I have made a ceramic head shape

of every guest with their face on it,

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

I'm gonna break the guests' heads.

♪ It's time that we give it up ♪

(hammer clanging)

♪ It just feels like wind ♪

It'll put all of them to do something

that maybe they weren't expecting

to be doing, you know?

(people chattering)

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

the critique of the art world,

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

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

(soft music)

When you're in public,
you are taking chances

of people acting or responding

in a way that you had not imagined.

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

Looks like him, no?

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

(bright music)

- [Hadi] Bye.

It kind of frees you,

allowing chance to play a role.

It allows for that de-skilled-ness,

for that imperfection to reappear again.

(bright music)