About Hadieh

Hadieh Shafie, is a visual artist, who lived in Baltimore from 2005-2018. Hadieh is now based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work collapses the space between, drawing, painting and sculpture and is at once process-oriented and overwhelming in its intricacy.

Shafie's work is in the following public collections: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Victoria and Albert Museum; Bank of America, Corporation Collection; Art in Embassies, Public Collection Dubai, UAE; The Columbus Museum,… more

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PARI

In Persian mythology, PARI or Peri are fallen angels who have been denied paradise until they have done penance. In earlier time they are described as agents of evil and exist between the two worlds. In this photographs, videos and performances I am exploring play, dreams and nightmares as they related to otherness.
  • twoheadedpariatrest
    twoheadedpariatrest
  • paricaughtwiththeflowers-flat
    paricaughtwiththeflowers-flat
  • paricaughtbreakingthevase
    paricaughtbreakingthevase
  • theinitiationofpari
    theinitiationofpari

EXODUS Project

The online project EXODUS will document the plight of a generation of Iranians who had to take a chance and make the significant decision to leave their country. Participants are able to share their stories of migration. Individuals may submit their accounts online sharing both text and photographs/drawings. Many of us who left Iran following the revolution between the years of 1980-2000, did so by parting with our culture, our country and our loved ones without knowing when, how and if we would ever reunite. The exodus of so many Iranians has had a significant impact on a nations culture and the memory of time before 1979. Intrinsically the personal accounts shared will shed light on a shared experience, documenting a period in history that has not been documented and more importantly give voice to those whose story should be heard.
  • Iran>Turkey>Germany
    Iran>Turkey>Germany
    Iran>Turkey>Germany 1985 Bus, Train & Plane Nilou & Naseem G. (Mother & Daughter) Ages of Departure: 15 & 42 Below is an Excerpt from personal account of migration submitted "My daughter Nilou was 15 when I decided I had to get her out of Iran. It just wasnâ??t safe anymore for young girls like her. There was so much that could go wrong at any moment. The threat of being arrested for talking to boys, not wearing the covering the right way, so many ways to get in trouble for a teenage girl. When I decided to leave Iran with her, I did not to tell anyone. Not my own parents, not Nilou and not even her father, my ex-husband. It would have just been too risky. I spent a year saving money to pay for our trip to Turkey. I packed what I could, taking cherished photographs of family members and friends, a few jewelry items perhaps to sell, and lavashak, Nilouâ??s favorite snack. We took the plane to Istanbul and lived there for four years. The proximity to Iran was both comforting and not. "
  • Iran>Pakistan>US
    Iran>Pakistan>US
    Iran>Pakistan>US 1994 Walking, Motorcycle, Bus, Plane Hadi, G. Age of Departure 27 Below is an Excerpt from personal account of migration submitted "It seems like a distant past, a past so vastly different from where I am today as a graduate student in the US, a past I feel proud of, a past I feel ashamed of, a past I must rememberâ?¦ I have been waiting for over three months to hear from the smuggler who is supposed to arrange for my exit over the south east border of Baluchestan region from Iran to Pakistan. Excruciating timeâ?¦I have sold or given out almost all my possessions including a collection of over 400 videotapes of cinephile arty films as I have gathered through underground sources and many read and unread books, etc. etc. The time finally comes. I have already spent good chunk of my saving to pay the smuggler and have almost $ 50 with me. I say goodbye to family, my sick father, my exhausted mother, my sisters, friends, relatives, and take a few possessions and a memory with myself. This is a revolution in my economically impoverished family. This is touching the abyss; the bitter sweet fantasy of a poor Third Worldist is realized. I know how to hide myself. As a Bahaâ??i I have had a life behind me to master the blending strategy. Smugglers pick me up and hold me for three days before sending me over the border on the back of a motorcycle. Before crossing the border, I bear with their opium smoking but we also talk."
  • Iran>Italy>U.S
    Iran>Italy>U.S
    Iran>Italy>U.S. 1985 By Plane Yasi, E. (Female) Age of Departure: 12 Below is an Excerpt from personal account of migration submitted My father still keeps this photo of me in his wallet. It was one of the last photos I had taken of me before we left. I left Iran with my family when I was 12 years old, in 1985. It was my Fatherâ??s idea to leave and he had to convince my Mother that it was the best thing for our future. She did not want to go initially. I remember being told by my parents to not mention our departure to anyone, not even to our family. The only people that knew we were leaving were my Grandmother and Uncle. We sold our apartment and all of our belongings in secret and left with our suitcases.
  • Iran>Austria>US
    Iran>Austria>US
    Below is an Excerpt from my own personal account of migration d Iran>Austria>US 1983 By Plane hadieh, S. (Female) Age of Departure: 13 "This is the last picture taken of me and my brother with our friends at the base of the mountains in Azerbaijan, before the 1979 Cultural Revolution of Iran. I am the girl in the yellow turtle neck and my brother is the boy next to the older girl with the headdress. My family and I left Iran in 1983 for a two week vacation to Austria, one of the few countries to give tourist visa to Iranian nationals. We packed our bags with two weeks worth of summer clothes and left our home to the care of my grandparents."

Esheghe Series

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    paint1
  • paint2
    paint2
  • paint3
    paint3
  • untitled-2
    untitled-2
  • untitled-3
    untitled-3
  • untitled-4
    untitled-4
  • shafie_01
    shafie_01
  • shafie_01detail
    shafie_01detail

Erase

  • hadiehshafie-thewritingtabledetail
    hadiehshafie-thewritingtabledetail
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    dsc02544
  • dsc02549
    dsc02549
  • dsc02550
    dsc02550
  • dsc02557
    dsc02557
  • dsc02593
    dsc02593