Artists of 2150: Ali Tahayori

The kaleidoscopic art and life of Iranian-Australian artist Ali Tahayori in his own words

Ali Tahayori has always been artistic despite his life experience taking him on some detours along the way. Luckily, it’s these experiences that have been mirrored (sometimes literally) in his bold and radical art that explores displacement, diaspora, and queerness. We had a chat with Ali recently about what brought him back to art-making after a 13 year hiatus, his personal connection to Parramatta, and why your heart needs to be broken again and again.

Hi Ali, how are you? What’s been happening recently?

Ali Tahayori: Hi – it’s nice to talk to you. Lots has been happening in the art world as you may know: I’m showing at Art Space next week as part of their NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) with another five amazing artists and friends. I’m also currently showing at the ACA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art) in Naarm, in a beautiful and rich show called Five Acts of Love. There are a few prize nominations, one is the Bowness Photography Prize at the Museum of Australian Photography in Melbourne, and then there is the Olive Cotton Award at Tweed Regional Gallery, and Mullins Conceptual Photography Award at Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre.

You’ve been busy! Is art-making a full-time job for you?

I have been really busy: I work as a medical doctor part-time as well.

When did you start making art?

I was always a creative person. When I was eighteen, I had to choose between going to university to study medicine or doing art. With a lot of societal and familial encouragement (and force) I ended up choosing medicine, which I did also genuinely have an interest in. While I was a medical student, I started learning traditional photography like darkroom techniques. I started a darkroom in my hometown in Shiraz, Iran.

I didn’t practice much as a doctor in Iran because I left as soon as I finished medical school and came to Australia in 2007, when I was 27. Then there was a big gap in my creative practice when I didn’t feel inspired to make any art. There was the cultural shock of migration but also the uninspiring scenery. But in 2020, I went back to uni to do a Master of Fine Arts specialising in Photomedia at National Art School (NAS) and that was when I re-started my art journey professionally.

When did you start exhibiting your work here?

When I started studying at NAS, I already had a backlog of ideas and concepts and creative work in me, so I exhibited while I was still an art student in my first year. My work won a People’s Choice Award for the Bowness Photography Prize which is one of the most prestigious prizes in the country.

Well done - you obviously stood out.

I do think that age and experience is an element. That’s something I always tell young artists: you can’t force life experience. It just needs to come with time, your heart needs to be broken again and again. Going through all those beauties and the ugliness that life has to offer makes good art. I’m not claiming that I make good art, but I think a level of lived experience is required to make art that is layered.

What advice would you give about making art?

Actually, I have more advice: always have a career other than art. It’s really important to have a source of income and you’re not relying on your art to pay your bills. Then your art is freed. I make art that I like to make and I don’t have to explain anything to anyone. I think the relative financial stability that comes from my medical career has allowed that freedom in my creative journey. Though it’s hard in Sydney.

I think that’s pretty sound advice. Speaking of Sydney, tell me about your relationship to Parramatta.

Up until recently I had an art studio at Parramatta Artists Studios. And when I came to Australia, the first place I resided was on Church street in North Parramatta. I was very homesick but walking on the streets of North Parramatta I could hear people talking Farsi to each other or cars passing by playing Iranian music. It was very comforting in those days.

What’s your favourite work of art - of others and your own?

One of my favourite artists of all time is Félix González-Torres, an Cuban-American queer artist who died of AIDS complications in the ‘90s. He has a work titled Portrait of Ross in L.A., which was the name of his partner. It’s beautiful - very poetic. It’s the weight of his boyfriend in lollies in the corner of a gallery, which the audience was invited to eat. It spoke to how gay people were dying in the ‘80s and ‘90s but society was so numb about it.

Of my own, it’s one called You and Me. It’s all hand cut mirror fragments and plaster on timber. It embodies a lot about my practice and the concept of mirroring and the collective.

What do you think of the local arts’ scene in Parramatta?

I think Western Sydney is the place to be. It’s blossoming with a lot of creativity. Having the Parramatta Artists Studios and institutions such as Casula Powerhouse is really important. It’s a very exciting time and as we all know it’s the most multicultural area of this city. And the most interesting.

alitahayori2@gmail.com

Instagram: @alitahayori

Website: alitahayori.com