week 10 03.07.2003

Shirin Kouladjie

Shirin Kouladjie was born in Iran in 1965, and has since become the epitome of multinational; she has traveled and lived in places all over the world. Her keen interest in mathematics started her career path in science, but was later supplanted by her creative desires as an artist. Rather than abandon her past interests, she incorporates mathematics in almost all of her artwork. In 1989, she moved to Canada and enrolled in Experimental Arts at the Ontario College of Art, and since graduation her career choice has been met with numerous successes.
With a varied portfolio, Shirin has exhibited her art at shows worldwide, including the Sundance Film Festival, FILE 2002 in São Paulo-Brazil, Centre D'art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie in Saint Clair-France, ISEA2002 in Japan, D.artNET online Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney-Australia, and INVIDEO in Milan-Italy. Her successes continue to grow with each project she completes.
Shirin is a collector of sorts. Her art takes a broad sampling of popular media, using newspaper clippings, wrappings, television stills, and magazines. She takes familiar visuals and imbues them with her own concepts and ideas. Recurring themes of childhood, memory, and death permeate her work, and create a mood of despondent nostalgia. She encourages the viewer to take up a new perspective, to re-examine the familiar and to question his or her own context.Since 1998, Shirin has almost wholly embraced interactive/web art. She has developed various websites including 5hirin.com, n3xt.com, and photomontage.com. No longer does one need to wait for a museum to exhibit art; the web, and ultimately her art, is open for viewing at all hours to anyone with a computer.