Bahareh Safarani
Bahareh Safarani (she, her), originally from Iran, identical twin sister of Farzaneh Safarani, is an interdisciplinary
artist whose creative practice exists at the intersection of visual art, new media, and performance.
Her signature "video-paintings"-video overlays of choreographed movement projected onto figurative oil-on-canvas paintings- and new works that reflect the fluidity of her approach has been shown nationally and internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her works have been collected by Museum of Fine arts in Boston, MA, Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, Morris Museum in New Jersey, and Akron art Museum in Ohio.
Extending her experimentation with digital technology into the realm of Augmented Reality, a site-specific installation at Morris Museum brings these experiential effects into the real and virtual worlds, blurring the borders of reality and imagination.
Formally trained in painting at the University of Tehran (BFA, 2013), Bahareh Safarani started working together with her sister Farzaneh after their undergraduate studies. Later they moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and secured their graduate degree in studio art at Northeastern University (MFA, 2016), during which they began to incorporate video projections into their work. Light moving across a wall, curtains undulating with the breeze, or a shadowy figure entering a room activates the painted surface, imparting an air of poetry and mystery. These scripted, filmed segments add a layer of narrative tension, providing a theatrical nuance that reveals the sisters' interest in performance. The symbolism of recurring motifs-such as curtains, windows, doorways, and rope-serves as a device to convey inner conflict or resolution. The shallow depth of her painted interiors sets the stage for an unfolding psychological portrait in which the main character undergoes transformation and self-realization.