Unconventional Mosaics by Media Kashani

This article was originally published on Hue & Eye.

About Media Kashani

Media Kashani is a young Iranian woman (b. 1989, Tehran) currently living and working in Milan.

She’s been studying art all her life, starting from an art High School diploma with a Graphic Design pathway to a degree at the Tehran University of Art in 2012.

Media then decided, as many of her Iranian peers after the revolution, to leave her home country to complete her studies abroad. She opted for the painting school at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, city which warmly welcomed her, as she says. Milan is indeed a place where Media could explore her actual relationship with art as well as her capabilities and techniques. Milan is also where she understood the deep link with her roots and land of origin, which will become the essence of her artworks. What moves her to create art is an attempt to combine traditional crafts with a contemporary approach, and for this, she created a mixed media technique to ideally reach this goal. Media examined the conventional middle eastern arts to then focus her attention on a peculiar practice: the mosaic. Iranians, like many other middle eastern cultures, widely used the tiles to represent historical and religious events, inside monuments, mosques, and historical buildings, as wanted by their tradition. Nowadays, though, as Media teaches us, this is also a practice that one might find onto external surfaces, such as buildings or walls. So what Media felt the urge to explore was to turn this traditional procedure into something more contemporary. She created, for sure, a unique method that became her trademark.

About Her Art Practice

In her most recent artworks, Media starts by choosing an input, such as a landscape or an emotion. She will then define a raw color palette to describe it better, to finally begin with her fascinating process. Media is indeed a sensitive and daring explorer, equipped with the right amount of patience. As we know that the final result appears as a mosaic, we are not sure of the procedure she undertook to reach that outcome. The canvas is not made of conventional ceramic tiles, yet of tiny pieces of acrylic, wood, paper, and glue. Onto a wooden base, she will start sticking small squared pieces made of paper and glue. These were initially a drawing she cut into small parts to then reassemble them onto the canvas to create a brand new abstract combination. The result is a stunning conceptual yet bold art piece. Her work recalls both a traditional craft and a modern vision, her investigation to feel attached to her roots while still researching for new paths.

Media is inspired by mosaic masters of Rinascimento as Michele Giambono and was strongly motivated towards this practice by Persian artist and professor Ali Panje Por.

With her artworks, she attempts to share with a more intuitive and sensitive meaning, as she believes art is a valid key to better communication.

Achievements

Media has already exhibited her works in a variety of shows and events. To mention the most important ones: ’59esimo Premio Internazionale Bugatti Segantini‘, 23 Giugno 2018; ‘Venti autentici oltremare’, premio arte Acqua dell’Elba, 22-26 Agosto 2017; ‘Il profumo del mare’, premio arte Acqua dell’Elba, 27-31 Agosto 2018; ‘Premio Dino Sangalli’, Palazzo Bovara, 27 Giugno – 20 Luglio 2016; solo show at Union Club, ‘Tema nostalgia’, 4-24 Ottobre 2017; Accademia Mondo, World Accademy, novembre 2015.

To know more about her go here.