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Stavanger based Iranian artist, Nina Ghafari, works across many mediums including painting and street poetry. Her work aims to reinvigorate the conversation about autonomous art practice through electrically charged words, paintings, objects and performances.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018.
Her installation for this years Nuart Festival “Beasts of No Nation” aka “Another Place/Figure for Landscape”rebooted for 2018, is inspired by “Another Place” by Anthony Gormley and “Figure for Landscape” by Barbara Hepworth. Both artworks now controversy removed from Stavanger.
“Another Place” by Anthony Gormley, Stavanger. Photo Credit Anthony Gormley
Nina Ghafari’s poetic installation echos Gormley’s work and consists of several figures, on Sola beach. The figures are placed coming out of the sea and facing inland, opposite to Gormley’s cast iron men who face and enter the sea from Sola beach. Her installation reflects the plight of refuges, and in her own words, branded as “Beasts of No Nation”.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
Nina Ghafari’s art installation is driven by her own childhood experiences of displacement, challenges and raw emotion that consumed her early years living in Norway.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
Her motivation came from her refugee parents who made the journey from Iran to Norway to provide her a better life.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
Nina Ghafari shares her experiences through her emotionally charged art, each piece tells a story about life as an immigrant, or as Nina felt… an outsider.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Kristina Borhes
Written on the wooden figures are words filled with hope and dreams of freedom…
“Tribes of no nation, What would you do if you were a refugee, Only love is real, Nothing is about you, Hope Hope Hope, How would you raise your child in a ghetto, No rest for the troubled soul, Born to label, Beasts of No Nation“.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
The figures are colourful and emotionally charged, whilst the faces capture a childlike quality, reflecting an element of vulnerability. The installation amplifies not only her words, but the voice of immigrants.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
Unlike Anthony Gormley’s iron men sculptures in Norway that were removed exactly 20 years ago, Nina Ghafari’s “Beast of no nation” found a more permanent “Home”.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Kristina Borhes
With a poetic connection the “voice of immigrants” speak out on an abandoned house in Stavanger, breathing new life into the house.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
Nina’s installation offers a powerful commentary on the plight of refugees and those existing between cultures and on the margins of society.
Nina Ghafari, Beasts of No Nation, Nuart Festival, Stavanger 2018. Photo Credit Brian Tallman
Nina Ghafari talks about her “Beasts of No Nation” aka “Another Place/Figure for Landscape” re-booted for 2018 in this engaging short film by MZM Projects…
