Taklif: Ideas of Femininity

2018-Present

Taklif: Ideas of Femininity was an artist collective formed around Arashloo and her collaborators everyday feminine experiences of Iranian women to establish ongoing research into alternative feminist based theories that apply to diasporic life in Queens and elsewhere in North America, as well as in Iran. They used a recollection of our oral narration, notes and personal records to develop a collective foundational knowledge.

For the occasion of an upcoming exhibition at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada (November 5, 2018 – December 14, 2018) Setare Arashloo will bring together a collective experience, Jashn-e-Taklif (ceremony of being dutiful). This religious rite of passage claims to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood and is held at Iranian pedagogical institutions and/or with families in the third grade of elementary school. The artist’s contributions will be presented into four formats: the exhibition, reading space, event series, and a publication, all of which will include opportunity for new participants and audiences to contribute. The exhibition embodies recollection of diverse personal narratives, inhabited within intimate dialogic spaces of companionship and femininity. During this exhibition the gallery offers an open access reading space where selected materials surrounding the exhibition will be available for further engagement. A forthcoming publication, which will be available as a resource housed at Queens College, assembles a series of texts accompanied by visual diaries that ruminate on the ideas, histories, and conversations surrounding the exhibition and events.