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music
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Can I sit here?
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Nice day, no?
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music
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You want one?
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music
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I think if you tell your parents,
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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
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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
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funny or humorous, people don't take it
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seriously.
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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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music
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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
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wanted to do.
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So I was like, what will happen if I'm
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also the clown? As an artist, you can't
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escape not pointing the camera or the
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finger at yourself. So I try to exaggerate
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that aspect, so then I will be allowed to
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also exaggerate everything else about the
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society.
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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
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surrounding me, the spectators of this
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circus. (music)
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I love that tension of who gets to tell
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more truths, is it a clown in a circus who
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can criticize a society or a serious
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artist, let's say or a serious politician?
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(music)
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When you come to my studio, there are very
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distinct, different works existing next to
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each other. One thing about the realistic
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painting is that it takes longer time,
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it's more labor intensive, in
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contradiction to this very quick stage of
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the cartoonish work. They are living on
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two different stages, extremely slow,
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extremely fast, extremely detailed,
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extremely undefiled, extremely skilled,
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and very de-skilled version of them in
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the cartoonish form. That kind of analogy
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has found its way all over my work.
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There is always this sense of two things
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contradicting each other. There is two
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energy, there is clash of two totally
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different things resisting against each
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other, and that's how the affect of what
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I'm producing is made. It kind of tries to
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resist this to this, maybe desire from the
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society to see you as one, to frame you as
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one. And I don't want to be that. (music)
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In 2008, I was living in Iran, my path was
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on another route. (spray gun hissing)
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When I was growing up in Tehran, with the
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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
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know? Almost like just be happy with what
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you are given. I was supposed to be an
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aerospace engineer and I remember I fell
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in love with cinema and with filmmaking.
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The Iranian filmmakers that I would think
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about, I had imagined, like, how the
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directors are writing and coming up with
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the stories, telling the stories of us
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back to us. (music)
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I realized, oh my god, there is a world
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even more free than filmmaking which is
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the visual art. And I knew at that point
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that I'm going to be a visual artist. Do
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you want? Here. Lemme just do it for you.
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(lighter flicking)
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What I like to imagine is that everything
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I make in the studio, it comes to life. It
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give like that soul to it when it's on
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display to the public. Oh, this is bad.
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Oh, this is bad. It's bad for your health
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too. (soft music)
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The Breakers is one of the grandest
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mansions of Newport. It has been turned
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to a museum and it's the first time a
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contemporary exhibition is being set up
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inside. (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 are there. You
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will hold it, I will have my hammer.
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-So once he puts
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-Yes - the pieces down, then we go out and
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get the food. -Exactly. -Exactly. -The
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people you have been serving, you just
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come between them and you will use your
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flashlight. It's totally fine to suddenly
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sit down and look under the table or look
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at the elephant. -Okay. We're looking for
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something. -Yeah, searching for
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something. Exactly. A lot of my
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performance have this sense of like a
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dream scenario. Things being tiny bit
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funny, and things being tiny bit sad or
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out of place. You want to laugh at it and
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you might feel bad by laughing at the
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artist. I like that confusion of, hey,
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what's going on? Forcing everyone present
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in the room to take on a role of
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performing as part of the night. Dinner is
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something always happens at the
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exhibitions after opening, and I wanted
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that dinner actually to be the center part
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of the exhibition. I have made a ceramic
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head shape of every guest with their face
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on it, to turn their heads into plate and
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bowl for the night. I'm gonna break the
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guests' heads. It's time to 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 to be
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doing, you know? (people chattering)
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-(Hadi) As much as a critique of society,
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the critique of the art world, it's a
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of the artist, meaning myself too. I'm
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always also the butt of the joke, you
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know? (soft music) When you're in public,
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you are taking chances of people acting or
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responding in a way that you had not
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imagined. - Can I be in the movie?
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-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, allowing chance to
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play a role. It allows for that de-skilled
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-ness, for that imperfection to reappear
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again. (bright music)