Mahsa Soroudi, an artist and independent art curator born in the metropolitan area of Iran, Tehran, in 1981. In 2006, Soroudi enrolled into the Azad Art and Architecture University, pursing a BFA in Visual Communications. Soroudi’s interests surround interdisciplinary topics that can exist beyond a exhibit, which in her provided example from the video, is ornamental plants (the succulents). Her purpose of her art is to compare the plant conditions and adaption to current conditions that are occurring for foreigners and foreign countries. Other works of art are collaborated with Iranian women, to portray recognition on the living conditions and work they face in order to find stability in a foreign country.
Soroudi has 2 major art projects, named “Natures Cadence” and “7500 Miles.” Natures Cadence represents how ornamental plants have similarities to foreign people, such as adapting to given conditions in an environment, displacement and resettlement. Soroudi said she was like her plant because she didn’t believe the possibility of settling in the U.S, but her plants taught her remain beautiful and strong while trying to officially settle down, such as how a plant does in a pot with roots. She would experiment with the plants, planting them under different conditions and recording the solution of appearance after. This purpose of art can be directed upon anyone, having to adapt to conditions and continue to push forward towards your achievements.
The second project, 7500 Miles, represents various Iranian women who demonstrate things beyond the anticipated norm, being women’s inspirations, confusions, intimate moments and frustrations, beyond being mothers, wives and daughters. In other words, it shows the inside of Iranian women lives than what we would perceive it to be. The art contains various amounts of vivid colors, abstraction and realism.
Observing Soroudi’s artwork, I can heavily relate with her idea of how people can be like ornamental plants, especially in recent years. Having to move and live independently in Long Beach, I discovered certain struggles that had to overcome through time, finding ways to strategize for myself financially, academically and establishing trust with right connections. I felt weak, tired and desperate at first trying to find a immediate solution to my problems, but then began to adapt and slowly gratify towards progression, such as how a plant adapts to the conditions its given and still thrives.
Ryan Conovers Art 110 Blog 