I used graphic software to overlay some Metal bands logos  and merge it to make a new logo that doesn't belong to any of them. The new sign is more like a Gothic image or an old sign in cave. The idea of using these logos comes from my childhood when i used to paint Rock and Metal band logos on my wool bag with a pen. It was a way to show my self and make an identity  out of something that i had no idea about it. We just knew the name of the bands, singers, and maybe two or three songs, we didn't even understand the foreign language. We were more into Metal heads fashion and outfits than the music. We were heard that they are "Satanist" and it was super interesting as we were living in a religions country. We wanted to be different and we got more depressed and bored of our society day by day. it was 2002. I added a quotation under every sign in these works.  I change the name of the authors, in some of the works I just translate the quotation also I change some words. I wanted to bring out another level of meaning  out of the quotations and make another content in combination of the logo above. I like it when it functions another way. It was interesting for me that an absurd sentence in Farsi that people use to tattoo in prison become a very poetic sentence in another language after translation. I also became a sign painter at the age of 12 as my father was. So I used laser-cut to mark the  outline on found solid cardboard. Cardboard for me is very middle-eastern material. I also like the potential of the two surface that u can play between. I wrote the name of the cities of middle-east at the top of the cardboard. It advertises and the artwork becomes the poster of itself. In this series I was digging into the life of an artist that always struggle to make an identity specially when you are a middle-eastern. The idea of a subculture that always gets hurt by western ideas but become the enemy of itself when it wants to play the game. The cardboard is like the placard of a protester but represents on white wall and lose the function. I like bringing different ideas to one surface. The complex that comes from this mixture become another idea and sometimes works paradoxically. In our colony depression is an option and gruelling is the new idea to work with. 

Shabahang Tayyari | 2017