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'I was fascinated by Monir's story'

City Times chats with Zara Houshmand, author of Monir Farmanfarmaian's memoir A Mirror Garden

What inspired you to write this biography?

I was fascinated by Monir’s story and the personality behind it — her sharp-eyed sense of humour, her love of adventure, her resilience and grace in the face of adversity, and most of all her generous creativity. I was hungry for a story that showed Iranian culture in a positive light and would challenge the negative view of Middle-eastern women as victims (and the men, by implication, as villains) that is standard fare in the West now. I was also intrigued by the challenge of writing the “portrait of an artist” — using words to capture the alchemy of the creative process and the precise visual magic of how an artist sees, remembers, and recreates the world.

How did you research material for this book? What are your thoughts on the book and the artist Monir's life?

I sat down with Monir and recorded her stories daily over a couple of months. I also drew heavily on my own memories of Iran, having lived there in the seventies and visiting often since then. To fill in details of the historical and political events that form the background of the canvas, I naturally used the resources available publicly to any writer. I wasn’t able to interview people close to Monir, as she was reluctant to let anyone know that we were working on the book until it was finished. But ultimately I think that helped to keep the book focused.

If freedom of expression is restricted in one's native country, what is your view on artists migrating to other places?

Having lived in several different countries myself (aside from living in Iran and the US, I grew up in the Philippines and was educated in England) I’m convinced that migration offers an artist unique advantages, aside from any issues around freedom of expression. Displacement gives you “fresh eyes”, an outsider’s perspective that you never lose, even when you return home. When you experience yourself as a citizen of the world, you can not only see more clearly the distinctive differences that separate us, but also focus on the deeper humanity that we share.

What is your impression of Monir's artworks?

The quality that seems most unique and distinctive in her work is a transcendent, ethereal purity. You see this most clearly in the austere geometric pieces that use some combination of mirror, steel, glass, and white plaster. They are abstract, but not in the way of abstract expressionism — not an explosion of self, but an effacement of self in the presence something much more refined and essential. Her use of geometric pattern borrowed from Islamic architecture is never nostalgic, hardly even referential, but rather a reenactment in contemporary form of the same impulses that drive the original tradition. At the same time, much of her art also has a playful exuberance and a sensual grace. It surfaces even in the most austere pieces, in conceptual twists of subtle humour, in her luscious use of colour, but also in her very expressive drawings from nature.