Exhibit Information:
Artist: Masha Soroudi
Exhibition: Nature’s Cadence
Media: plants, soil, water
Gallery: N/A
Website: http://www.mahsasoroudi.com/
Masha Soroudi is an Iranian woman who immigrated to the United States, more specifically Southern California, at the age of 30. She explained how she had been constantly surrounded by an encouragement of creativity, as seen by her parents professions in painting and the arts. Additionally, she described watching many Hollywood movies when she was younger, and this contributed to her knowledge of other cultures besides her own.
The process behind the ideas of Nature’s Cadence has to do with actual planting and nature. The artist described that the idea is to trim the succulent leaves and put each into its individual compartment in a tray with soil. What happens then is that each leave will grow its own individual plant in the soil. She described how the roots are not a part of the plants, since they are later used for food.
The artist continued to explain how after a while of exploring LA and going out, she soon became tired of the constant adjustments and couldn’t connect to the art or some other aspects of being in a new environment. It went to the point where she often neglected her plants, in what she include herself to describe that neither her nor the plants were doing too well. Then, she realized that she was not giving the plants the amount of energy and love the required, and once she did they soon began to do better than she was. She began to find meaning in the plants that applied to herself, in which she realized that the process of struggling to find new roots and expand them was not easy, however was ultimately worth it.
At first, I did not see how planting succulents was a form of art, but after hearing the artist’s experiences, I saw the symbolism behind it and what it meant to her. As she explained how she realized she hadn’t given the plants enough love and energy initially, I connected it with the idea that as long as you continue to put effort and care into something, it will continue to grow and blossom into something beautiful. In addition, when she explained that the roots do not become part of the plant and later act as food, it was not hard to find meaning in the simple biological process. I felt it symbolized how your roots bring genetic material and give you a start, but they do not define you and you have that choice to identify with them or not. Despite this, your roots do account for something and essentially ‘feed’ you, giving you potential knowledge and experiences that are unique to yourself, however what you do with that and how you build onto it is up to you.
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