SISSI FARASSAT / SEQUINED GLAMOUR

© Sissi Farassa

The sequined photographs of Sissi Farassat can't help but recall the work of fellow Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri. Like Moshiri's art, Farassat's work has an element of kitsch infused in it. Kitsch can be overpowering and can easily overshadowed the substance of an artwork. Farassat has so far avoided this pitfall.

Using self-portraits, family photos and pictures of strangers, Farassat hand sews the sequins over the entire image, with the exception of the main subjects. Sequins posses a duality that allows them to have both extravagant and cheap connotations. These photo based artworks also take on a duality of being hand crafted and covered in glamour, but not escaping the kitsch that covers most of their surface. 

The feminine material and the act of sewing puts this work in the territory of gender based art. It also becomes a photo-as-an-object and is as much about the preciousness of the item as it is about the content. 

Farassat created other sewn pieces, notably sequined passports, which of course are also precious objects – with or without the added sequins.

© Sissi Farassat

© Sissi Farassat