Artist: Mahsa Soroudi
Exhibition: Natures Cadence
Media: Succulents
Website: http://www.mahsasoroudi.com
Mahsa Soroudi is an artist who is Iranian born and educated. She grew up and lived in Tehran which is a metropolitan area with a lot of culture. Tehran is considered the art capitol of Iran and has some of the best universities. She grew up in a moderately Muslim family, with a father who was a painter. She travelled to many different countries and even lived in Malaysia for a year. She decided to move to California with her husband to gain better opportunities but made it clear that if she stayed in Tehran, she would have had a comfortable life.
In her exhibition “Natures Cadence” the focus and media used was succulents. In one of her pieces she trimmed a bunch of succulents and propagated them. She placed the succulents in a plastic container that divided each succulent. Each looked different as some had pink roots sprouting while others did not. Some of them even had a succulent starting to bloom that was a blue/green color. The succulents were a range of different green colors while some even looked a little blue and purple. In another piece she had a bunch of grown succulents in a planter. The succulents ranged in sizes as some were short and round while some of them were very long. The succulents were green, blue, and brown in color. The tall succulents had a lot of movement to them as they grew away from the soil.
In her first work where she was propagating succulents the leaves were planting their roots to form a new plant which represents her life as an immigrant. The leaves were planting their roots in a new place to grow something new, which is what Soroudi did when she immigrated to California. She was planting her roots in a new place in hopes of finding better opportunities. Soroudi claims that you never know what’s happening underground with the roots of the succulents in her second piece which she can relate to as an immigrant, because she might have been really still for a couple of years but in reality she was growing roots in order to feel at home. She explains that succulents are resilient and was able to connect that to herself as she was coping with feeling homesick.
I found the interview with Soroudi very interesting to watch and listen to as she was able to connect her life story to succulents. I myself have a couple of succulents and it was interesting to listen to her take on them. I thought that the meaning that she drew from the succulents was powerful. She related her own experiences to the experience of a succulent growing and thriving in a new environment.
Brielle Sunseri 