Negin Ehtesabian

The Void Cafe series

Technique: Mixed-media (pencil, pen, gouache, found material and magazine paper collage, digital edit)

​

This series of works is about this combination of modern life with traditional values in societies and families, the paradox, struggle, confusion, and –of course- the beauty it creates.

According to the appreciation and love she has for Iranian traditional art, the miniature is one of those that has a big influence on her style. Especially when it comes to its exceptional perspective rules, use of colors, being decorative, and its extreme attention to detail. She uses its dynamic visual language to reconcile traditional values with the contemporary moment and the particular complexities of our times. 

This series also reflect the loneliness and solitude that people feel in today’s lifestyle, no matter how busy around them is, and no matter how many friends they seem to have, their real best friends actually are their mobile phones and social media is the first place they go to when feeling lonely, to express their feelings, to share experiences, successes, life events, and to discuss thoughts. Sometimes it seems it doesn't matter who is on the other side hearing/seeing them, but it becomes a monolog people talking to themselves, and sometimes it seems it continues in real life too, and even when they are sitting in front of each other in a cafe, or at the table at home, that solitude continues and everyone is performing their own monologs without actually hearing each other.