The Storyteller - Soheila Sokhanvari

Soheila Sokhanvari's show at La Scatola Gallery portrays a intertwining of the everyday and the magical. Several of the pieces require research in order to "decode" the pieces, which can make them a little inaccessible, but their intriguing state in the physical world leads to much interest and a genuine want to look further into what one is seeing. This can be noted with the piece Moje Sabz 2009, which has this statement next to it ont he press release, 

N.B. In order to decode this work the full title needs to be searched on google and choosing the first few hits on the search engine.

This piece has become the flagship piece for this show, it seems to follow some line surrounding a disgust that people often find surrounding taxidermy and a level of cruelty about the trophy state that is generated. While when pt into a gallery  and modified it becomes something more, perhaps in a similar remit, than a trophy, certainly taking a more mystical route. 

Much of the rest of the work takes very political route, Sokhanvari's Iranian roots taking center stage. This is especially true with the piece Talking to Myself a performance first performed in March 2010, and then again last night in La Scatola, where there is alot of questions surrounding the conformity of culture and the adaptation of one when moving to a new environment.