Elham Bayati

Bayati’s work explores the layered experience of women in society across cultures. Largely experiential, Bayati presents her own emotions navigating patriarchal Iran through traditional Persian motifs – vibrant hues, gold accents, and floral patterns. Fabric references domestic work and is collaged with printed materials, photographs, and layered painting to present a reconciliation of past, present, and future. Rich, colorful Persian heritage, contemporary Iranian distress, and Bayati’s current life in Columbus blend to present the combination of dark and light which colors so much of modern life.

“My works are episodic, and my mind is layered. My works are about a woman’s living in different times and paradoxical worlds at the same time. I visually narrate thousand years of Persian women’s souls- tired souls, conveying the pressures of hegemonic masculinity and a society which tries to ignore them; I narrate their love, anger, silence, sadness and happiness.

My works are about my vision about myself as an Iranian woman, my sense of reality and my identity. I paint the many flowers that grew even though patriarchal society tried to cut them. They reflect the floral patterns that remind me of my grandmother’s scarf, and my mother’s dress-making fabrics. These patterns signify the beauty of a peaceful point in the middle of the dark life of contemporary Iran.

In my works I use fabrics, collage and different types of printing, and combine(layers) my drawings with prints and patterns with figures of women. In my dreams I reconcile two worlds: I strive to illustrate a rich, colorful culture that has been faded by the dark shade of sadness.”