29. Sayeh Sarfaraz: Dictator is in Town

Sayeh Sarfaraz’s creative world draws inspiration from the political events relating to her home country’s government. The constant anxiety of conflict, censorship, and the repression of the people of Iran is relayed in the naive language of a plastic toy collection and drawings. Relating directly to her wandering and exile, the figurines, haphazardly staged along childlike patterns, experience dramatic situations such as violent struggles, bombardments and jailings. This distortion between play and politics highlights the injustice of the manipulation of the weak, the gulf between great powers, and a people’s struggle for freedom. By a power transfer, the artist becomes the mistress of her own world as an outlet where her thoughts can freely unfold.