A Colossal Conversation: Arghavan Khosravi On Tension, Circumventing Censorship, and the Protest of Iranian Women

two images, both of of a figurative pillar sculpture. the left is the back of the work with blue birds flying upward, vines of orange flowers, and the back of a helmet. on the right is the front of the work, which shows a woman in a persian helment with a white feather. chain mail covers part of her hair

“The White Feather” (2023), acrylic on canvas over shaped wood panels, wood cutouts, plexiglass, metal nails, chainmail, feather, 82 x 50 x 16 inches. All images © Arghavan Khosravi, shared with permission

For Arghavan Khosravi, obscurity is the point. In a new conversation with Colossal, the Iranian artist recounts how she translates the experience of living a dual life—that of immigrating, of presenting differently when at school and at home, and of wanting to deny clear interpretations—into disjointed works that are equally alluring and destabilizing. She says:

I’m interested in this idea of contradiction in general, not just in how the paintings look. When I have imagery coming from different contexts—like historic, contemporary, Western, Eastern—this creates tension, which is like a visual translation of the tension Iranian people feel living in Iran. Most Iranians don’t believe how the governing system is thinking and believing, so there is always this clash between tradition, religion, and then modernity and secular ideas.

Khosravi discusses using a simple visual alphabet to convey complex narratives, feeling inextricably tethered to her home in Iran, and why she needs to paint every day to cope with injustice and heal from trauma.

Read the conversation.