Uncovering the Mystery
by Kristin Wissler
From a young age, Farzaneh and Bahareh Safarani, better known as the Safarani Sisters, were enamored with the arts. Growing up in Iran, the twin sisters spent all their free time drawing and painting. While they took swimming, volleyball and gymnastics lessons, the real fun for them was coming home afterwards and drawing. By age five, they knew they wanted to be artists, and at age 13 they met and began learning from Iranian artist Farimah Farhatnia.
They went on to study art at Tehran University, majoring in painting, but also taking classes in music, theatre, dance, poetry and other art forms. They went on to Northeastern University to pursue their MFAs in studio art, a joint program between Northeastern and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, both in Boston.
In May of this year, I covered the Safarani Sisters’ MFA Thesis exhibition, “Presence,” for Artscope’s online zine. Shown in Northeastern University’s Gallery 360, the exhibition consisted of six “video-paintings”; paintings with video projected onto the canvas. The intriguing medium used was not the only notable feature of the exhibition. The video-paintings created a slow, dreamlike world, centered around a woman contemplating both herself and the house that she moves through. The Safarani Sisters’ newest exhibition, “Projecting Her,” opening September 16 at Adelson Galleries, contains more beautiful yet mysterious video-paintings.
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