Author Archives: sixpillarstopersia

Six Pillars – Single Motherhood / Towards The Possible Film

Artist Brian Zegeer

This week we hear from our Iranian contingent I Ran Into Iran on the social politics of single motherhood in Iran, and an interview with artist Shezad Dawood at Art Dubai 2014 on the eve of his screening Towards the Possible Film. Plus we go out with a track by Scotland-based jazz explorers GOL from their new album ‘Strange Times‘.

Maryam Abolfazli is an international development and online media professional based in Washington DC, exploring and researching ideas of single motherhood both in Iran and US at 34. For the I Ran Into Iran Episode 7 our duo quiz her on her work and research into single parenting. Abolfazli makes the distinction between single motherhood as a choice option for those in the developed and ‘undeveloped’ world and connects the pressures with everything from fighting a fight with the help of a support and possible drug addiction without.

Towards the Possible Film - Shezad Dawood

Towards the Possible Film – Shezad Dawood

Shezad Dawood’s film screens April 3rd at Parasol Unit Gallery, London as a preview to the solo exhibition of work at Parasol 4 April to 25 May 2014. As part of the new Art Dubai section Film, he staged a Q&A after the screening and stopped by our booth at #Falgoosh Radio to discuss themes touched in his film, such as experimental anthropology, everyday aliens and future tribalisms.

An interesting aspect of Dawood’s creative process for this project is that he publicly critiqued and discussed the film before it was made and so turned the traditional film making format around. Broadcasts across London on 104.4FM or online, Thurs 19:30, Sun 06.30 GMT.

“Six Pillars to Persia” is a focus on Middle Eastern, and wider arts and culture on air and online on arts-music station Resonance104.4FM.

Free Lab Radio – Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower

portastudio

The Tascams used in the residency

Free Lab Radio profiles Static Gallery’s curatorial stint at Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower, Country Antrim, Northern Ireland. The gallery locked all existing artwork on walls at the Tower down in the dungeon, and instead put artists-in-residence in rooms alone with a Tascam 4 track recorder.

The result was a limited edition vinyl, and a night of live performance from the likes of punk-poet Jinx Lennon and CLINIC and a radio broadcast within a two mile radius of the famous tower. Interviews feature artist Tracy Moberly and Static curator Paul Sullivan. Live music by CLINIC, Ex-Easter Island Head, Jinx Lennon and the intro film track as recorded on the Tascam, by Paul Sullivan. Here Paul discusses the politics of the work, and how he involved the community of Cushendal in this unique residency project.

Free Lab Podcast – The Curfew Tower by Fari on Mixcloud

Free Lab Radio – West Town Goes East

West Town Goes East by Fari

This episode we we sampled the sounds of Nour Festival 2013 and gave away tickets to see Jah Wobble live. Plus audio by two Iranian female composers who were applicants for the Six Pillars UK-Iran Sonic Residency Project. We also open and close this new releases by Lebanese singer and writer Yasmine Hamdan, who was performing in Shepherd’s Bush, West London that month.

Six Pillars to Persia: Don’t Throw Your Love to Babylon


This week we’ve tickets to give away to From Babylon to London at Jackson’s Lane Theatre, Feb 16th 2014, plus we earmark several ResonanceFM fundraisers events going on around Valentine’s day.

This show includes our monthly guest slot from I Ran Into Iran USA. Artists Katayoun Vaziri and Brian Zegeer conduct the second part of an interview with Dr. Nayereh Tohidi, Professor and former Chair of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at California State University. We heard the first part of the interview last month, and now Dr. Tohidi speaks on influence of Western and Middle Eastern Feminist movements on the women’s rights movement in Iran from the early-20th Century to the present day. Plus music from the Samani Brothers who perform in the extravagantly named From Babylon to London for which we’re giving away tickets!
We also hear a track by singer Neyssatou (Badiaa Bouhrizi) from Tunis, Tunisia.
More info on our show and events on www.sixpillars.org

Free Lab Radio Podcast – Paul Noble

Paul Noble. Free Lab Radio Mix. by Fari

Free Lab Radio broadcasting 11-midnight, Saturday nights on Resonance104.4FM. Fari Bradley’s guest is London-based Paul Noble, an active DJ, radio producer, music consultant and producer.
He’s worked on Monocle 24, The White Cube, The Observer, The Green Man Festival and dance floors around the world. His directive tonight is to dig into the depths of his music collection for the truly bizarre.

Free Lab Radio – DeepWhiteSound


Free Lab Radio – Deep White Sound by Fari
For a full tracklist visit www.freelabradio.blogspot.com

deepwhitesound an online label of free, experimental music from all over the world, whose aim is to create challenging, experimental work and make it available via digital download for free.
These tracks were sent in by founder DB Amorin to give us an overview of the different works and disciplines being submitted to DWS, and we begin with the most abstract one!

Deep white sound “supports and foster a community for artists working at the fringes of art, technology and society, that expand the possibilities of how sound-based art is experienced, distributed and discussed”.

While female, queer and ethnic minority artists comprise a woefully under-represented and under-supported demographic in the arts, they are of particular interest to DWS who champion the margins. However DWS state clearly that they “seek out and support work from all people, everywhere, who wish to broaden the scope of what is possible”.

Six Pillars – #IranUKSonics Residency Preview: Niloufar Em

Visiting field recordist form Iran, Niloufar Em discusses Six Pillars’ current residency project at London College of Communication, and the group performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre on Friday 13th December, 6pm. Tutored by seminal guitar manipulator Keith Rowe, the group, consisting of six LCC Sound Art and Design graduates and the five visiting Iranian artists, had just 4.5 days to prepare. Here Niloufar also discusses the week of workshops that follow the performance, including a field recording workshop with world-renowned field-recordist Chris Watson.
Performers were Niloufar Em, Heckmat(t), Nasim Khorassani, Sepehr Haghighi, Nemo Ghasemi, Howie Lee, Yiorgis Sakellariou, Maria Popadomanolaki, Irina Zakharova, Artur Vidal, Angela Yeowell and Veryan Weston.
For more information go to www.sixpillars.org/IranUK

Six Pillars – On Farideh Lashai, An Interview with the Artist’s Daughter


In tribute to Farideh Lashai (1944-2013), we podcast this phone interview with her daughter during an installation at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde in Dubai. Here Maneli describes the intricate videos and the ethos and methods behind her mother’s animations. Until she passed away, Lashai had been creating works for over 40 years transitioning between various mediums and becoming a heavyweight on the Middle Eastern arts scene. Even before exhibiting artwork she trained and worked in crystal manufacturing workshops in both Germany and Austria as a designer for years. She had also studied German literature, translating several plays by Berthold Brecht (1968-2008); before concentrating on fine art as a career. She was also a writer, her novel Shal Bamu, was a best seller and garnered the attention of Iranian literary circles. Lashai was also one of the founders of Neda Group which is a group of 12 Iranian female painters who reflected on themes such as identity.

Keep Your Interior Empty of Food that You Mayest Behold There in the Light of Interior (video) 2012

Six Pillars to Persia is a focus on Middle Eastern arts and culture, broadcasting weekly on Thursday evenings at 7.30-8pm, repeated Mondays 8.30-9pm GMT on 104.4FM across London, or www.resonancefm.com/listen
www.sixpillars.org
The 2nd series of Six Pillars to Persia has run weekly since 2007, the first in 2005-6.
Some content is podcast-only and not broadcast on air.
Join our FACEBOOK group for extra photos, info and first competition news

Six Pillars has received a variety of acclaim including listings as ‘Critic’s Choice’ in The Independent newspaper and a write-up in the BBC R4 dramatised book ‘Radiohead’. Previous guests have been comic Omid Djalili, Abbas Kiarostami, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and galleries such as Saatchi Gallery.

The series is produced and presented by broadcaster Fari Bradley

Free Lab Radio – Iran Clubbing with Bitmarx

After having seen him play live at The Egg, building the set sound by sound in Ableton and carrying his own mixer with him, we asked Iranian house tech producer and DJ Bitmarx to make us an hour of electronic dance while he was back in Iran. He used his contacts and experience as a DJ to pull in the best tracks by both obscure and very well known producers, most of whom like himself, are also DJs. The mix features production and remixes by Iranian artists – some of them based solely in Iran while others travel globally.

Free Lab Radio – Bitmarx by Fari on Mixcloud