Maryam IranPanah

I started my studies in 2008 with Prof. Daniel Hausig and Prof. Gabriele Langendorf. During my studies, I regularly attended nude figure drawing sessions with Mr. Armin Rohr which positively affected my work. These sessions helped me to get a better understanding of the language of colors and use of a paintbrush.

I stayed on Daniel’s course till the last day of my studies. He often questioned my hopes and fears. Daniel never told me: "Don’t use black paint". He quickly discovered my inner wounds were reflected in my paintings, and kept asking questions. I tended to give short answers. Nevertheless, I always thought deeply about his words! All of my paintings in that period had a black background.

There was a fear growing inside me everyday, and I had no idea where it was coming from. Did it have anything to do with my childhood, Iran, or being a foreigner in Germany? I was unable to figure out what made me angry and scared. Was it my own fears and loneliness as a foreigner, or the fears I was carrying from Iran? I’m inseparable from Iran. There is no boundary between Iran and me. IranPanah, my surname, consists of two parts. Iran indicates my origin and Panah is asylum in Persian. Iran Panah, a confused asylum seeker who is looking for asylum and protection in Iran, or is it the other way around? All I know is we are inseparable.

For three years I only focused on self-portraits. Also, I focused on drawing dolls, cats, dogs, my own shoes, clothes, and some suits.

I call this phase of my life "WHAT DO THE BIRDS SING?"

War | 2009 | Acrylic & Net on Canvas |120 x 80 cm

Farangis | 2009 | Acrylic on Canvas |120 x 80 cm

My Wedding | 2009 | Acrylic & Net on Canvas |120 x 80 cm

Music and poems had characterized my childhood. My mother's voice had left traces, deep on my soul.There was a black cassette recorder on our kitchen table. In the evenings, after long days, my mother turned the tape on and began cooking. Haj Ghorban Soleimani, Beethoven, Gholam Ali Pour Attaei, Bach, Majid Teke, Mozart; my mother brought them to my life. And Shamlou’s warm voice:

My fear is to die in a country where the wage of a gravedigger is higher than the freedom of the people.

We've seen | 2009 | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x 80 cm

Atelier Hausig | 2010

The story began after passing through the black corridor. I was suspended in that black mist. I was suspended, toward a light by mist. I got to the end. In the blink of an eye I drowned, or maybe I dissolved. Yes! I was dissolved in the white mist. The Game and loneliness started. I laughed. I shouted. I laughed. I cried. I danced. I laughed. I laughed at my shaved head and my earrings, I laughed at golden coins. I cried for the clock that has stopped working .I danced with the wild horses, I danced with the rhythm of your instrument. I laughed at the angles, cried for the knight, laughed, cried, danced, danced, and shouted: Yes! Yes! I shouted. Shouted with sewed lips.

Yes!!! I’m far from the clan.

August 2010/ Saarbrücken/ Deutschland

Atelier Hausig | 2010

It was just before Christmas when I went back to my atelier after Armin’s class. When I arrived, I saw Daniel standing in front of the door. He asked if I wanted to go home. "Maybe later...” I answered.I was so calm. I sat comfortably on the couch and looked at the virgin, white canvases. Beside them, there was a pair of red wings and red antlers, which I had recently bought from the one-euro store with no purpose in my mind. I liked their redness near the white canvas and spent hours staring at them.The next morning, Daniel came into the studio and looked at my work. He curiously asked if I wanted to paint them in black again. I said No! I want to fly...

I call this phase of my life "I WANT TO FLY"

Everything has started from you, you mother! Guilty mother, mother who descended from heaven.I'm like the restive sea at night.The waves pounding on the shore fast. I get thrown back to the shore and then the sea takes me back,drowning in myself.Algae starting to dance and fishes terrified, in the feast of my heart they start to dance, too.Just like the nights at sea, full of noises,and I know you're the first person, who bit into the red apple.

August 2011/ Saarbrücken/ Deutschland

My mother Eva is the first sinner | 2010 Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x 240 cm

I don't want to be an angel. | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x 80 cm

I am Maryam, the mother of Jesus | 2011 | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x 80 cm

I am innocent | 2011 | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x80 cm

Don't skin the Tiger | 2011 | Acrylic on Canvas | 130 x 180 cm

Paradis | 2011

Football | 2011 | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x80 cm

Holy Cow | 2010 | Acrylic on Canvas | 100 x140 cm

Happy | 2011

I LOVE 1 € SHOP | 2011 | Karlsruhe

5 course menu | 2011 | 120 x 80 cm

Domino | 2011 | Teheran

Orgelfabrik | Durlach, Karlsruhe 2011

I still can hear | 2011 | Acrylc on Canvas | 120 x 80 cm

- Do you want to play?- Cops and robbers?- No, I neither want to be a cop nor a robber. Let’s play leapfrog. I’ll stop, you will jump and you will stop and I jump. It’s really fun.- I’m sleepy.- Shall I tell you the story of the sticky monkey?- No, no, no! I don’t like neither glue nor monkeys.- What about the story of the spotted elephant?- The one that jumped on your head and built it’s house?- Yeah.- It makes me laugh when I think of its trunk. Tell me about love.- About love?- Yes!- Nobody can describe love.- How about time?- Time?!- Yeah, time.- I’m not sleepy anymore. Let’s just play leapfrog to see who wins.- Is winning important?- Isn’t it?- No, all that‘s important is that we can jump.- Should we jump?- Yeah, let’s jump.

Juni 2011/ Karlsruhe/ Deutschland

Tehran | 2011

I have literally lived in each painting.

Losing everything | 2011 | Acrylic on Canvas | 120 x 80 m

Diplomarbeit | HBK Saar | Saarbrücken | 2011

In 2011, I had to return to Iran. I gave away my books to my friends, and threw away most of my drawings that I had drawn in the past three years into a trashcan. I rolled up my canvases, grabbed my only suitcase and flew back to Iran.

Tehran! the city of beautiful homeless cats. It is my home, where my mother lives. My Mother’s books and cassettes are on the shelves in the house. In Tehran, you can yell in the mountains and hear your voice back. Where is love? In the search for love, I started the “Love You” series.

“Love You...”

Darakeh, Teheran | 2011

HBD Kouroosh | 2012 Acrylic on Canvas | 150 x 100 cm

I crawl into my atelier and put the colours on my mixing palette, and turn the music up. Tanbur... Tanbur... Tanbur... The voices are going through my head. Why did Golshifteh pose nude? Now, what about her movie "Mother"? Why hanging? Why war? These diet pills are really good! Where is Shiva? Why are these TV advertisements about Viagra and similar products appearing constantly? Did Michael Jackson have a fake nose? Why hanging? Why hanging? Why hanging? The loving angel tells Pinocchio to lie. Dear lady, please buy these plasters. What a moll!”

Afterwards I threw my painting on the ground and walked on it. I cried until I grew tired. I changed the music. Then I got lost in the yellow and purple holes. Crying and screaming was heard.

Parties with homemade schnapps. These days, Jahangir talks about business, which is in crisis. He talks about the rising dollar and euro rate, the price of gold and the sanctions.Dad, were you not tired of watching the repetitive news on VOA and BBC? Were you not tired of seeing 22 people running after a ball in two 45 minute halves? - No, my dear! Ali, I feel dizzy. At night when I am sleeping, I feel as though I am riding on a big wheel. I hear the voices of people from the circus in my head. I dream constantly about the night that we got a gun for 5 Euro, and shot at the dolls to win the white, scatty teddy bear with “Love You” written on it's tummy. I’m so dizzy.

November 2012, Teheran/ Iran

Play in Play

Photographer & Neda | 2012 & 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 150 x 100 cm

Photographer & Amir | 2012 & 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 150 x 100 cm

Lisa & Xanax | 2012 & 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 150 x 100 cm

In 2013, I decided to return to Germany. I had a dizziness that continued for a long time, and I eventually had to be hospitalized. After my release, I decided to disconnect my contact with the outside world for a while.For seven months, I worked in a café for six hours everyday. I drew hearts with white milk on dark coffees. I painted everyday for six hours many hearts: thick, thin, narrow, broken, in-love; and at nights with acrylic, watercolor and pen, I drew on paper.

Let`s Go Dancing | 2014 | Mix media on Cardboard| 20 x 30 cm

I rented a small apartment in Dusseldorf. My apartment was too small to think of using framed canvas. After some time, I started to love to paint on frameless canvases.

Let`s Go Dancing | 2014 | Mix media on Cardboard | 21 x 30 cm

Let`s Go Dancing | 2014 | Mix media on Cardboard | 21 x 30 cm

Poets are the inheritors of water, wisdom, and light.. (Sohrab Sepehri)

Farzad Kamangar | plan.d | Düsseldorf

Martina | 2015 | Mix media on Cardboard | 58 x 42 cm

Judgment...

It’sdifficulttojudgeaman.Iknowwealthandpowerareverytemp;ng,justenoughtostartwars.

I do not want to paint the red spots of earth with green.I am in love with the sightline of people.

Father | 2014 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Dalai Lama | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas |140 x 100 cm

Catherine Ashton | 2014 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Ban Ki-Moon | Detail | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Wladimir Wladimirowitsch Putin | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Mahmud Ahmadinedschad | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Mohsen Sazegara | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Massoud Behnoud | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Farzad Hasani | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 120 x 170 cm

Anosheh | | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

What is the intention of life?

LEVIATHAN`S WORM HOLE

In the highest point of mind, transforms Leviathan at the borders of time and space, from time to time, inconsequential of any existence, the wormholes of truth’s perception into void. Bypassing the fears, that in the depth of oceans, rule the origin of all the ideas, like humanlike duwalpas* on a fire alley. Baal is also incapable of confronting him in another time and place. Traversing these wormlike holes, so melancholy and deep, in the highest point of mind, which is called the Leviathan’s Wormhole, depends on…

Düsseldorf, August 2015

* Duwalpa: Is a Persian mythic creature that has human-like body and but long and twisted hoop-like legs and is known for being importunate.

Roßstraße | Düsseldorf | 2015

Sofie <3 | 2015 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Uutitel | 2016 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 160 x 110 cm

Dance me | 2016 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 160 x 130 cm

Sabine on the Rhein | 2016 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 140 x 100 cm

Martina & Cat | 2016 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 165 x 125 cm

Matthias & Marie in old Town Düsseldorf | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 170 x 140 cm

Father | 2016 | Acrylic & Oil on Canvas | 170 x 130 cm

Rhubarb bush

From a big hole in mountains we see the flashing lights. Our feet are in the seawater.- Shall we swim?-Yes. We swim; as far as the eyes can see there is man and a sea. diving and underwater swimming. The great hero sits comfortably on the shoulder of father and winks. The rhubarb Bush is growing ... Mashya and Mashyana1 had let to be drowned in long distances. I look at the opposite island, in the eyes of Nahid and Anahita2. The sun dissolves in the sea.

1In the Old Persian Myths, Mashya and Mashyana are the first humans created on earth. 2Anahita and Nahid embody a Zoroastrian Iranian deity of water in the cosmic ocean and are the symbol of fertility.

Lisa | 2016 | Mixed Media on Cardboard | 48 x 36 cm

Thou shalt seek in the stranger's eye those thou knowest are in the water... (Paul Celan)

Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | each 36 x 48 cm

Pia in Camden | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | each 50 x 70 cm

Fabian in Düsseldorf | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | 48 x 36 cm

Thomas in Düsseldorf | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | 48 x 36 cm

Michael in Düsseldorf | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | 48 x 36 cm

Monochrome | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | 48 x 36 cm

Esther | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | 48 x 36 cm

Bitter Joke | 2016 | Mixed media on Cardboard | 50 x 62 cm

Aphrodite | 2016 | Acrylic on Cardboard | 50 x 64 cm

Dance in old Town Düsseldorf | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 170 x 140 cm

Sara Smile | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 88 x 74 cm

Nina Smile | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 88 x 74 cm

Somaye Smile | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 88 x 74 cm

Sofie is a Butterfly | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 160 x 110 cm

Keep in mind, never do anything that disagrees with the rules of nature. (Sohrab Sepehri)

Assunta & Chiara | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 120 x 140 cm

Mi-Hi dancing with Umbrella | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 120 x 140 cm

Natalia on the Rhein | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 120 x 140 cm

Mary & Cat | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 120 x 140 cm

Alicia | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 120 x 140 cm

FREE HUGS | 2016 | Mixed media on Canvas | 120 x 140 cm

Life simply goes on

Düsseldorf / 2016

Father | 2016 | Mix media on Cardboard | 58 x 42 cm

Maryam IranPanah

30.08.1979 Born in Tehran/Iran

2000 - 2004 Bachelor of Arts in Photography Azad University of Art and Architecture, Tehran, Iran.

2008 - 2011 Master of Arts in Visual Arts Saar College of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken, Germany. Thesis Advisors: Prof. Gabriele Langendorf and Prof. Daniel Hausig