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“What some may consider “International recognition,” in my experience can only be achieved in Iran through the support of state-supported art galleries and nepotism, and I had access to none of those, plus I don’t easily submit to lies and public pretenses.”
“I was not favored by anyone and so far as I could see, the powerful art lobbies of Iran and Iranian art abroad tried to stop my work from international recognition. They could prevent my work from getting noticed, but I went the long way to try and prove myself.”
NK: Did you ever think when you first started, that someday you would be referred to as Iran’s first graffiti artist, and one of the first such artists in the Middle East, well-respected and recognized in Europe, too? Can you tell us about your work on the international level and how non-Iranians have received your work?
“Well, I worked anonymously in Iran. But among the students and alumni of Tehran Art University, almost everyone knew who I was and it was getting harder and harder to walk in the neighborhood of Vali-e-Asr intersection and Enghelab Square without getting spotted. Books and magazines about my work with my pictures were published and I was clearly recognizable.”
NK: So, did you do all this work anonymously? You mean nobody knew who you were? For how long? How did they come to recognize you?
“For one thing, for 12 or 13 years I followed this work very seriously. Not too many other people had the capability, the courage, and the perseverance to do it. It is hard to escape recognition if you keep doing something so public for that long.”
“Art is a language with which we establish our social relationships. If our view is somehow critical and our work reflects social maladies, it is considered “political.” But I believe in my case that there were different factors that made things somewhat serious about me.”
“Graffiti as an art form is a problem all over the world. When I first started it, because no one else in Iran had done it before me, things were a little harder for me, with an uncertain future…but that’s a very long story!”
“No matter what you do, if you do it deeply and with a well-formed worldview and vision, it will show its political and social dimensions, which could make it a subject of scrutiny.”
“A wall is what we usually deal with in life. People usually separate their homes or countries, or their assets through walls, and define their boundaries with a wall; some even define their individual and mental turf through walls.”
“Well, graffiti, or “urban art” or “street art” can somehow express and record a protest, maybe a protest against capitalism or power. I should also add that graffiti also records protests against people and the whole system of emotional give-and-take and the social system.”
NK: How did you turn to graffiti? Wasn’t it hard in Iran? What kind of problems did you experience? Did Government authorities consider your art as political art? Did you really intend it as political?
"This is how I sign my works. The name has turned into some type of a code about me. It describes many different things, such as how lonely today’s modern man is. It also addresses my own loneliness as a modernist young man when I first started my kind of artistic work."
“In 2011, ‘Alone’, supported by Adrenaline Club, established the Tehran Graffiti Club, a base for the Iranian artists to work on metal panels in a peaceful and open space at one of Tehran’s downtown parks, although this work is still in progress and is facing many challenging difficulties. For more listing of selected group and solo exhibitions see here."
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