Shervin Shaeri
Medium: Sonic Art and Sound for video
Born: Tehran (Iran) 1981
Education: BA (Hons) Sound Art and Design, University of the Arts London.
Updated: 10 September 2006Biography
One of my earliest and perhaps the fondest memories of childhood is of me and my cousins playing in the living room of my uncles house. Men and women sung and clapped over traditional folk songs, with the sound of the Dombak and Santur almost hidden over the blaring voices. This was often accompanied by the intoxicating smell of opium that drifted across the room to where we were playing.
The war between Iran and Iraq continued. Occasionally to mourn the death of a soldier dates were laid on a big serving dish out in our front street, with a picture of the deceased hung above it as people paid their respects. I will always remember the morning call from the Mosque in our town, an eerie yet calming wake-up call and the mighty sound of a bomb going off that causes the body to flinch in to action.
I asked my dad why does so much of traditional Iranian music sound so mournful, his reply was simply that our history was one of sorrow, strife and grief. For many years people of Iran have had their voices cut, poets and musicians alike cannot not express themselves freely which of course lend its self well to these two forms of expression.
It was my brother who had his ear to the ground back then, his favorite artist at the time was Madonna, (mine was predictably Michael Jackson) i remember this influence led my parents to buy a pair of sunglasses and a walkman from our local wheeler-dealer as of course most things western were banned. Our video rental store was a man in his late 50's by the name of Farzad, every Friday he would come around our flat with his black briefcase that contained all the latest releases, at that time this mainly featured Nightmare On Elm Street. Once we had selected our videos for the week, Farzad would disappear again to only reappear the following week. It was then the job of my father to translate each film as we had our eyes glued to the tv screen.
Having moved to London with my family in November of 1990, my first experience in the delights of what western culture had to offer was Tesco. I had never in my life seen so many shelves of food, it was quite the introduction. I seem to remember that my first purchase was a Mars bar that my mum, although having very little money that day bought for me. Chocolate is hard to come by in Iran.
Movies
Final
Sound by Shervin Shaeri. (video animation by Martin Ruyant) This video will feature in the upcoming Raindance Film Festival. (http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/)
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