Title: Irreal
Year Completed: 2023
Size: 50 x 70
Technical: mixed media on canvas

Description
Irreal piece is from my “Close up” collection. Everything started from the place where I wanted to see the essence of things, in this artwork the concern is not the subject, but the subject is just a cause to flip to the world of truth, I want to show the fact in a very close and irreal way...

Irreal is the representation of the truth of things, which is beyond what we rationally see. Sepideh Shabahangi expresses her artistic will by choosing the surreal channel; however, there could be no representation of the subject more real than her. Therein lies the concept of truth; truth is beyond what our eye perceives and our mind synthesizes, and only art can succeed in capturing it. The subject is enveloped in a variety of colors and shapes that take on appearances attributable to the natural world. The subject's face is painted and becomes polychrome and above all, it acquires dynamism, as if swept by the wind. The work Irreal is part of the "Close up" collection. The artist says "Everything started from the place where I wanted to see the essence of things, in this work the interest is not the subject, but the subject is just a cause to go to the world of truth, I want to show the fact in a very close up and unreal way." The feature the work shares with Surrealism, ideally, is the radical critique of conscious rationality, and the liberation of the imaginative potential of the unconscious for the attainment of a cognitive state "beyond" reality. Her work is certainly dreamlike, precisely because it gives access to what lies beyond the visible. The artist herself states "I feel as if the whole world is upside down, sitting in front of a work, and I feel able to confront myself. For me, painting is a universal language that connects people all over the world and can show exactly who you are, not just with your appearance, but in a real and profound way."