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Losing Themselves in a Distance to Far Away Heights. Opening on Saturday, Oct. 8 at Disjecta Interdisciplinary Art Center in North Portland, the exhibition is the fourth in a series of six curated by Disjecta’s curator-in-residence Jenene Nagy, for the art center’s 2011-12 season.

In gathering information, Farsi – herself an Iranian-American – sought answers from Iranians from all walks of life: immigrants, those living in exile, refugees and those still living in Iran. Her conversations, conducted via email, focused on breaking through the American cliché of “living the dream” and engaging her participants in a more complex and meaningful discussion surrounding issues of nationalism and cultural identity as it relates to the individual.

Farsi attempts to conflate civic and devotional space in an effort to better understand the systems that both bind and loosen us from our geographic locations and cultural identities. The objects in the exhibition – simple, pared down forms acting as icons – together with the use of documents and drastic shifts of scale are reflective of Farsi’s larger body of work and make room for the personal to become political. The installation examines areas of public congregation and seeks to inspire conversation around the tension created between the actual space of the gallery and the psychological space the work occupies.

Read review by Sabina Samiee here: aaablogs.uoregon.edu/blog/2011/10/17/ta…