The Self : A Journey into Cogito Ergo Sum

Abstract

The Self is a series of photo-based videos within an autobiographical conceptual framework in five chapters. It visually illustrates my search for my lost identity and personality as a Persian immigrant artist, using a performative documentary art practice in a poetic and meditative space. After several years of unsuccessful efforts to settle in Canada and to be accepted in Canadian society, I felt that I had lost my self and ego. The concept of the artwork is to create an unconventional visually performative documentary that addresses the question, “Who am I?” This project represents the feeling associated with losing one’s self in a visually coded and semiotic artwork in which the audience is invited to decode the visual segments in order to determine the meaning. The main axis of the work is a series of recent self-portraits and personal identification portraits that are superimposed over pictures related to the history and culture of Persia and Iran with an emphasis on contemporary poetry, music, and mystical philosophy.