week 10
03.07.2003
Shirin
Kouladjie
Shirin Kouladjie was born in Iran in 1965, and has since become the epitome
of multinational; she has traveled and lived in places all over the world.
Her keen interest in mathematics started her career path in science, but
was later supplanted by her creative desires as an artist. Rather than abandon
her past interests, she incorporates mathematics in almost all of her artwork.
In 1989, she moved to Canada and enrolled in Experimental Arts at the Ontario
College of Art, and since graduation her career choice has been met with
numerous successes.
With a varied portfolio, Shirin has exhibited her art at shows worldwide,
including the Sundance Film Festival, FILE 2002 in São Paulo-Brazil,
Centre D'art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie in Saint Clair-France, ISEA2002
in Japan, D.artNET online Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney-Australia,
and INVIDEO in Milan-Italy. Her successes continue to grow with each project
she completes.
Shirin is a collector of sorts. Her art takes a broad sampling of popular
media, using newspaper clippings, wrappings, television stills, and magazines.
She takes familiar visuals and imbues them with her own concepts and ideas.
Recurring themes of childhood, memory, and death permeate her work, and
create a mood of despondent nostalgia. She encourages the viewer to take
up a new perspective, to re-examine the familiar and to question his or
her own context.Since 1998, Shirin has almost wholly embraced interactive/web
art. She has developed various websites including 5hirin.com, n3xt.com,
and photomontage.com. No longer does one need to wait for a museum to exhibit
art; the web, and ultimately her art, is open for viewing at all hours to
anyone with a computer.