Z

Design

SMITHS

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SMITHS

SMITHS is the Goldsmiths student union magazine I was assigned Design Editor. Three issues were published throughout two semesters. Our goal for the year was to develop a feature based magazine, that would be redefined with each issue and refining its identity as we progressed. Hence our motto “We can do anything with this”. The features, photography and visuals were entirely sourced from the student body, resulting in the democratisation of the magazine both by the student body and for it. During my tenure as Design Editor I designed the SMITHS logo, the Goldsmiths year planner, distribution material, the magazines themselves, and organised the 3rd issues’ launch exhibition.

Commissioned by
BA Design Goldsmiths University of London

Link
issuu.com/unionplus/docs/smiths_issue_3

2009—2010

FUTURE FOLK CATALOGUE

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FUTURE FOLK CATALOGUE

My brilliant partner Benjamin Weetman, the rest of the graphics team and myself are responsible for the graphics, identity and show graphics of the Future Folk BA Design University of London degree show. The catalogue doubled up as a guide and memento to the 4 day exhibition. We approached the design of the document to correspond with our ideas about the distribution of a collective publication. Our intention was to take full advantage of this rare opportunity, with the intention of applying our graphical knowledge and resources to challenge and push the traditional format. There are 1000 copies of the released publication, risograph printed with Ditto Press, on 80 gsm evercopy recycled paper inside a screen printed Fenner 270g colourset cover, bound together with rubber bands.

Context
Degree Show

Commissioned by
BA Design Goldsmiths University of London

Link
It's Nice That
futurefolkdesign.co.uk

2011

FIGURE OF SPEAK

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FIGURE OF SPEAK

A language of production is transformed into a language of use. Remove the clutter, trim reality down, and create a set of interfacing prototypes that allow a more direct access to the language of objects. Such objects must be simplistic and tactile enough to be freely associable to any given design task, any environment and any test subject, including myself. 3D printing technology allowed me to create a set of infinitely reproducible, replaceable, uniform objects that can serve this purpose.

What you see before you should be understood as language. However, I don’t expect everyone to have the same understanding of it. There exists a culture of objects and how we perceive them. As we are individuals, we interpret objects differently. Each piece has meaning in itself. Taken together the meaning may change — their collective becomes greater than the individual parts. Together they can be a conversation. Together they can be language.

More important is how others can contextualise these items. It is universal in the way that it knows no limit of tongue, vocabulary, grammar, or even literacy.

Context
Degree projekt
BA Design Goldsmiths University of London

2010—2011

AUSGEDRUÜCKT

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AUSGEDRUÜCKT

The initiative sponsored by SHIFT was a silk screen workshop-concept facilitated by Viadukt in collaboration with a number of female artists, who brought us each together with volunteers from various marginalised communities. The outcomes of these individual workshop series, culminated in a group show.

It was my privilege to be paired with a group of strong teenage refugee women. My workshop for them aimed to materialise the groups impression of the city they now call home.

Commissioned by
Viadukt

2018

DIGITAL PIANOLA

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DIGITAL PIANOLA

A strip of light dependent resistors, working in unison through Arduino and Logic, produce an analogue orchestra that is presented alongside my colleagues from the Live Project. After the Live Project, we voluntarily continued working on the interactive segment of our design proposal that led to this outcome. We perforated over 40 metres of print roll paper with a vinyl cutter to enable anyone to interact with the device. By picking these perforated dots out of the paper, the user was able to compose a piece of music.As the paper passed through the sensor array, the dots that had been removed would cause light to shine onto the LDR’s and in turn trigger samples within the Logic environment. Within the environment was a bank of samples, each sensor had its own bank, within which notes were randomised to give variety. The Digital Pianola was proudly featured at the London College of Fashion graduate digital showcase in 2010.

Digital Pianola Team
Hal Gillilan, Benjamin Weetman,
Doug Roxburgh, Zahra Shahabi

Link
Video 1
Video 2

2010

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Art

THINGS — I LIKE FUNCTIONAL

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THINGS — I LIKE FUNCTIONAL

Collaborative sculpture with BOICUT using acrylics & spray paint on constructed plastics.

Context
Gallery Hilger NEXT
Cash Cans & Candy

Availability / Price
Click here & ask

2016

THE END IS NEAR

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THE END IS NEAR

Mural on Theresianumgasse, Vienna.

Context
Gallery Hilger NEXT
Cash Cans & Candy

2016

AUTOEROTICA

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AUTOEROTICA

Fetishising mundane consumer goods may be a symptom of frustration or mere sexual curiosity. Either way, it is a practice that many tend to be kept even more private than the already socially stigmatised regular sexual behaviour. Out of shame, fear of judgement or of crossing rationalised social taboos regarding the practices of procreation many will deny this industrially curious part of their desire or fantasy. This series does not intend to demonise nor cast judgement, but rather romanticise this repressed part of our base drive.

2 × Acrylic on canvas 120 × 80 cm

7 × 4 — 6 colour screen print
series 70 × 50 cm
ED. 10 + 4 a.p
Viadukt
Artist & Residency

Contact me for availability

2017

SCHWITZ 

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SCHWITZ 

A collaborative art installation by Maria Christina Hilber, Max Kropitz, Zahra Shahabi & Sergio Valenzuela for the group show "Crucial Experiments".

The project attempts to create a synaesthetic bridge between visual and the olfactory input. The user is given the opportunity to test his or her ability to recognise three individuals through their smell rather than their voice or appearance.

Three dancers perform a choreography on video, wearing specially designed sweat collectors that enable each individual’s sweat and scent to be sampled and collected. In this performance each dancer is entirely painted in one of the colours corresponding to those of a printer’s cartridges: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

The collected sweat is analysed, sampled, concentrated, and filled into the respective colour cartridges, allowing the printer to effectively print the scent of the dancers on paper. Each dancer is introduced to the user with a portrait alongside a sample of their individual scent.

The user then watches the video of the recorded performance — in black and white. By eliminating the colour on screen, the user is forced to rely on their nose to recognise the dancers. The video is paused, the still is shown, and the user is presented with the option to print. The identity of each dancer must now be determined by comparing the black and white image with the olfactory print of the still. The user is asked to smell the colours present and rate them by percentage. Upon submitting results, the screen reveals the equivalent image in colour and resolves the question.


Context
Crucial Experiments
Ovalhalle Museums Quartier

Commissioned by
MA Art & Science
Die Angewandte Kunst Wien

Link
artscience.uni-ak.ac.at/

2013

SHOULDERS, KNEES & TOES

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SHOULDERS, KNEES & TOES

Mural for #Streetartpassage
166 × 238 cm

Commissioned by
Jan Arnold Gallery, MQ

2018

INTERFERING WITH NATURE

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INTERFERING WITH NATURE

Opulent and fragile, these sculptures are indeed inflated. Would it not be for it‘s source of power this would merely be a heap of garbage bags. The sum of the plastic parts create an animated greater whole. I‘d like to demonstrate how the best things in life are finite. Produced with a minimal budget, I found plastic bags to be ubiquitous and dirt cheap though weighing heavy on my ecological conscience.

To this day I have developed a range of such sculptures, each perfectly tailored to diverse spaces and a particular theme. Given every unique opportunity to reiterate, I have developed and advance this sculptural project, calling attention to the state of negligence toward valuable resources we label "disposable" and condescendingly take for granted.

The advantage to this form of installation is its flexibility regarding production. You name the space, I’ll gladly create the piece or pieces that best interact within it and the people engaged.

Fluffies

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Fluffies

Context
Experimental

2018—2019

WILD HORSES

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WILD HORSES

2 colour A3 risograph print
30/30

Printed by
Soybot

2019

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Info

Shape
Shape

References

Solo Shows

Aug. 18
Red Carpet Art Award — Interfering with Nature. An interactive inflatable plastic sculptural installation on display in the Red Carpet Art Award showroom Karlsplatz, Vienna
Mar. 18Apr. 18
Jan Arnold Gallery — Interfering with Nature. An interactive inflatable plastic sculptural installation on display in Jan Arnold Gallery, MQ, Vienna
Jun. 17Jul. 17
Autoerotica, Vidukt #6 Edition — A showcase of 7 screen prints featuring a 3 hole Mini-Golf Installation following a 3 month artist & residency, Vienna
Sep. 07Oct. 07
Home is Nowhere — My first solo show at the Museum of Young Art, Vienna

Group Shows

25. Oct. 1906. Dec. 19
Full Court Desire — Group show in Sanettystraße 1, 1080 Vienna
Mar. 19
RRRIOT Festival 2019 Regarding Revolt — Curated by Eva Zar
Oct. 18
Vienna Design Week 2018, KARAK Kunstedition — KARAK raku artists edition in cooperation with the workshops and showrooms at Schiffamt, Vienna
Mar. 18Apr. 18
I bäg you — Interfering with Nature. An interactive inflatable plastic sculptural installation in Kunstraum Retz, Niederösterreich
Feb. 18
Living Studio — Interfering with Nature. An inflatable installation for Living Studio in Q21, Frei_Raum, MQ, Vienna
Sep. 17
Loftas Festival with Impropperwalls Gallery — Interfering with Nature. An inflatable installation for the music & visual-art festival in Vilnius, Lithuania
Jun. 17
Demystifying Femininity — Contributing with work on canvas to Impropperwalls Gallery, Vienna
Jun. 16Sep. 16
Cash Cans and Candy, Gallery Hilger Next — “THINGS – I LIKE FUNCTIONAL”. A a life-size plastic sculpture painted with acrylic and spray paint in collaboration with BOICUT, Vienna
Aug. 13Nov. 13
Crucial Experiments — A cooperative show by Art & Science, University of Applied Arts and Vienna Art Week. In addition to being an exhibitor, I was also responsible for the exhibition graphics, communication, catalogue and production, Vienna
Sep. 13
Digital Pianola at the Victoria & Albert — Displaying a collaborative, interactive audio installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Apr. 11Jun. 11
Future Folk Goldsmiths BA Design Degree Show — Other than showing my degree project, I was also responsible for coordinating the graphics team, catalogue and involved in the show art direction, London

Workshops

Apr. 18Jul. 18
Ausgedrückt, Viadukt. Workshop following a Group exhibit — A four day workshop series engaging youths under difficult life circumstances, culminating in a group show showcasing all groups delegated to collaborating artists, Vienna
Aug. 12
Elementary methods in drawing — Directing a creative workshop with a group at the United Nations Women’s Guild to develop confidence drawing and skills, Vienna
Aug. 11
Stickers on Boxes Workshop for Interesting 2011 — Stuart Bannocks' workshop supervision and documentation, commissioned by Russell Davis, Berg Design, London

Expo

Dec. 17
Schmuck Skulptur — Interfering with Nature. Inflatable plastic sculptural installation on display in at the Nordbahnhalle, Vienna
Sep. 18
Vienna Parallel — Interfering with Nature. An interactive inflatable plastic sculptural installation from Kunstraum Retz, reinstalled, Vienna
Feb. 15
4th World Bicycle Forum — I presented #VELOTYPING with overwhelming participation for the workshop event at the 4th WBF in Medellin, Colombia
Jul. 11
New Designers — Goldsmiths BA Design group performative exhibit at New Designers Expo 2011, London
Jun. 10
Anti-Design Festival 2010 — Stickers on boxes was developed and executed with the London based Designer Stuart Bannocks, London

Work Experiences

Aug. 22Aug. 23
Leitmotif GmbH — Part time art direction and graphic design for Kaleidoscope.app, CI, marketing material, website design, UI/UX design, video production and editing of app feature demos.
Mar. 18Jun. 20
DO & CO — Full time graphic design and art direction for internal external and commercial commissions across all media national and international, Vienna
Feb. 12May. 14
Buero Bauer — Part time graphic design project development, management, production and support across all media including way finding, interior and architecture, Vienna
Aug. 09Aug. 10
Smiths Magazine — Art Direction & Design Editor for the graphic production and content development of Goldsmiths University of London student magazin, London

Assistance

Oct. 22
Boicut "Smile" — Project management- & production assistance for the 2022 DOT 750m2 asphalt mural located at 1700 Macombs rd, the Bronx, NY 10453, USA.
Shape

About

I have run out of places to hide. I’ve been relocated, displaced, expelled, bureaucratically forgotten, uprooted, dissimilated and disenfranchised. I was born from Iranian parents, then on diplomatic mission in Harare. So along with Persian heritage, British upbringing and Viennese schooling, my passport labels me Iranian and only recently Austrian. Beyond simple desire to form identity without distinctive or localisable origin, I consider Art and Design fertile ground for social-transformational projects beyond “self”-despite, or perhaps thanks to a potential for self-erasure.

As a concept-driven, cross-disciplinary designer and artist, I am capable of making, thinking, building, researching and development. I resent having my works labeled “Iranian” or “Austrian” and I dread the horrendous deadlock of orientalism. I find hope in a kind of pan-European outlook, one which dismisses systemically ingrained categories like ‘immigration’ in favour of “utopian” urgency.

With the utmost respect, I have no intention of promoting one or the other institution, through my artistic endeavours. This will certainly not be my final attempt at challenging myself by branching out to areas outside my realm of studies and occupation, but rather I hope it can be one of many to follow.