[soft, gentle music]
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- Words are powerful tools.
And we are witnessing that.
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You can elevate someone with your words.
You can crush someone with your words.
Words have this great power.
They are great tools.
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My name is Nina Ghanbarzadeh.
I'm a full-time visual artist.
I am from Tehran, Iran.
Tehran is the capital of Iran.
That is where I was born and raised.
And I moved to the United States in 2001.
I use specific words and phrases
and I write them repetitively on paper.
So, that is how I make compositions.
So, I would say that these words and sentences
act as colors or elements of design in my art.
So, instead of color, I use words.
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So I would like my viewer
to look at the whole composition as a one unified piece
and enjoy the composition.
But as a viewer gets closer to the composition,
to the words,
the words start to reveal themselves.
Then they find out,
"Oh, so there is something written in this work."
I usually write in my mother tongue, Farsi,
and I don't write the translations.
The reason is because I borrow from Persian poetry.
And when you translate poetry,
the sensibility of language is being lost.
And I have to do a lot of thinking
and brainstorming on how to write.
How should I write specific words
so they can make movement and pattern on the paper?
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I used to paint.
My paintings, they're all representational,
and they all had elements from my culture.
But when I started to write, it made me feel good inside.
Just being able to recite these phrases,
it made me feel close to my birthplace,
to my friends and family, in my head.
So it really helped me to settle down in this country.
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I want to show the beauty of Persian culture
through the words that I pick.
That is what actually I want my viewer to feel...
this calmness, the quietness,
because we have so much going on in our world.
And I want my viewer to--
when they stand in front of my drawings,
I want them to be able to take a deep breath
and say, "There is something that calms me.
And there is some peace in these pieces."
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