Utilising the expressive qualities of paint, my creative practice intertwines realistic portraiture with abstracted Farsi and Arabic calligraphy to raise insights into the spiritual reality of the human condition. Drawing on the writings of the Baháʼí Faith, a religious minority and world faith originating in nineteenth-century Persia, my paintings question the relationship between the material and immaterial dimensions of being. These portraits depict members of the Baháʼí community in Perth and Melbourne, sharing their existence with the world whilst employing them as human portals through which universal themes of selfhood and spirituality can be delineated.
In describing the qualities of the spirit, the aesthetic of my artworks reflect my experiences of diaspora as an Iranian and Baháʼí migrant raised in Australia, whereby western conventions of portraiture and eastern traditions of calligraphy are amalgamated into something new. In this sense, while my paintings express people and themes that are deeply personal, they simultaneously function as mirrors of an increasingly globalised contemporary world where both body and spirit are undergoing transformation and displacement.
instagram: @khashayar_salmanzadeh