“Roxana,” by Leila Rastegar

Experience Women of the World

By Charly Haley
Contributing Writer

The Spirit Room Gallery in Fargo is currently showing a multimedia art exhibit titled “I Am Looking for a Human Being.” The exhibit runs until January 30.

There are five artists featured in the exhibit, three visual artists and two poets. The visual artists are Jess Larson, Leila Rastegar and Sandra Barnhouse. The poets are Reza Saberi and Latif Bolat.

Larson, Rastegar and Barnhouse’s art will all be shown throughout the run of the exhibit, with an upcoming reception for Barnhouse on December 11. Bolat’s poetry reading and concert have already been shown in the exhibit; Saberi’s poetry reading is scheduled for December 4. For a complete schedule of the “I Am Looking for a Human Being” events, visit http://www.spiritroom.net and click on “art gallery.”

According to the exhibit’s curator, Jill Johnson, the title “I am Looking for a Human Being” was derived from a reinterpreted translation of a poetic phrase by the 13th-century poet Rumi. The exhibit is “an attempt to pry us loose from assigned meanings and provide a safe space to raise questions.”

A notable aspect of the exhibit is that all five featured artists come from different backgrounds, with different experiences.

Larson’s contribution to “I Am Looking for a Human Being” is a series of women’s and domestic objects embroidered on silk, titled “Little Girl, Look and Learn.” Each object shown is paired with a word.  For example, a white glove is paired with the word “guarded.”

“Our brains strain to shout a more familiar word association, and yet, that moment of uncomfortability caused by Jess’s work, is pivotal to the process of change,” Johnson said in a written commentary of the exhibit.

Larson is an associate professor of studio art at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Rastegar is a painter who contributed a work titled “Inside/Outside,” from the series “Iranian Women.”

“My artwork explores the complex identities of women in Iran,” Rastegar said. “It is based on my experience as an Iranian woman living in the United States. I seek to describe the experience of women of my culture with a western perspective.”

Originally from Iran, Rastegar taught art classes at Shahid Avini’s Institute and attended the Shiraz Art School. She is now pursuing a master of fine arts in painting at University of North Dakota while teaching undergraduate classes. She has exhibited extensively in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Barnhouse is also contributing a painting to “I Am Looking for a Human Being,” with her series called “Juxtaposition.” In this work, Barnhouse collages contrasting cultural images.

“I decided that one way I could call attention to the contrast of my current life — serene, uneventful and safe — with the news that comes from everywhere else, would be to juxtapose these images as though they were a collage,” Barnhouse said.

“Whenever I have considered whether these paintings represent my personal experience, I’ve come to realize that they do indeed. I have had a rare existence, having never been in the same room where any violence occurred,” she said. “The violence I’ve seen has been through the various media. This, I believe, gives me an outsider’s perspective and shows that we are all affected by violence and displacement, even in sheltered innocence.”

Barnhouse has a master’s degree in painting and printmaking from St. Cloud State University, and was employed there for 20 years as the university publications editor. Now, she is retired and works full time as an artist and writer.

Bolat and Saberi are contributing poetry from two different cultures. Bolat read Turkish poetry and performed Turkish music, and Saberi is scheduled to read Persian poetry.

“Both Reza (Saberi) and Latif (Bolat) bring historical context to the project through centuries of poetry that searches for bringing meaning to the experience of being human and in seeing the other as human,” Johnson said.

As a whole, “I Am Looking for a Human Being” seems to have many strong and diverse messages, all convening at a point where the audience is meant to, as Johnson said, “question how we view each other and our world.”

Dawn Morgan, executive director of The Spirit Room, said that the exhibit has been successful so far. Considering that it is open until Jan. 30, she said it still has a long way to go.

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If You Go

What: “I Am Looking for a Human Being”
Where: Spirit Room
When: Through Jan 30
Info: 701.237.0230