A Sign, Born Under a Bad Sign

The "bad sign" is an astrology reference: if you're "born under a bad sign," it means the stars are aligned against you from birth.

As you can see in the website's footer or in About or Exhibition sections this sign is always present. The main reason of it's birth was to use it as a stamp on the back of the frames or the authenticity certificates and also in my side projects.

In fact the sign is trying to say: "moshtaba was here."

A ring, two fish, three black circles, some symbolic leaves, and the numbers "۴۰۴" which in Persian reads 404.

The ring signifies a whole universe in which these artworks are happening. An imaginary dystopia like the ones created by famous authors like Aldous Huxly, Ray Bradbury, Jack London, Yevgeny Zamyatin and the most famous of them all George Orwell, and many other respected writers. A middle east flavored dystopia mingled with the global elements, struggling to reach a glocal atmosphere.

The fish is a multilayered personal symbol for me. The simple form of a living body with just a lateral line and a head and a tail. The form also can be seen vertically like a vagina.

Being alive and femininity (two citical issues in middle east) are bound together in this iconic fish for me. On the other hand, I was born and raised in northern Iran near the Caspian Sea and fish always reminds me of my birthplace, the fishermen, memories and the scenery.

404 is based on the famous (infamous?)

"404 Not Found" error all over the internet.

It's a container of our digital generation's mythology and a clear signifier of that "not found" spirit all over the artworks, trying to cause a sense of ambiguity of a lost dystopian civilization.

The black circles represent a dynamic cycle of unity and division. Like two smaller circles are getting merged and join the bigger one and then a moment later they are born again from the same circle, moving up and down endlessly.

The last element, those ornamental leaves are a legacy from Persian art approach to abstraction and the influence it had on likes of Gauguin, Matisse, and Kandinsky and other modern art masters. The element is a reminder of this important clash of where I was born and the contemporary spirit of art which developed my visual vocabulary.

Combining them all, the sign was born definitely under a bad sign of being a Dystopia Creator to represent me, my world, my struggle, my vision and my imaginary symbolic lost civilization.