Tannaz Farsi, Blink, 2016, LED bulbs, steel, wire, 216 x 3 x 14 inches. Installed at YOU IN MIND, Converge 45, 2017, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland, Oregon. Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds. Curator Meagan Atiyeh.
The Bonnie Bronson Fund has announced Tannaz Farsi as its twenty-eighth annual Bonnie Bronson Fellow.
Since its inception in 1992, the Bronson Fund—named after the late American painter and sculptor Bonnie Bronson—has annually awarded a no-strings-attached cash prize (this year’s prize is $10,000) to an artist of outstanding merit who lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, the Bronson Fund purchases artwork by each new Fellow, adding it to the Bronson Collection. The collection is on long-term loan to Reed College, where it is exhibited throughout the campus and curated by the Director of the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Stephanie Snyder.
Tannaz Farsi lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she has taught at the University of Oregon since 2008 and is currently an associate professor in the School of Art and Design. Farsi was born in Tehran and relocated to the United States in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq War. Her work employs many materials and techniques, language, and technology, to create spaces that address social and political circumstances, in particular experiences of diaspora and displacement.
Tannaz Farsi writes that she draws “from materials and forms that are easily recognizable and range from items such as fluorescents bulbs, my Gmail account or live plants, using our familiarity with these objects, spaces or things to allow for multiplicity in meaning to develop through arrangement, organization and form. The work is project based and my strategies are steeped in the history of sculpture, installation and conceptual art practices, allowing me to use a range of mediums to produce objects, photographs and prints. I am interested in the friction that is instigated within the mixing of these conventions – whether it is an aesthetic structure that illuminates a political condition or an attempt to bring an irrational idea or an idea that does not have definitive form into a physical structure.” She continues that her most recent projects “have undertaken a more direct political address and yet still engage materials as a connective language. The construction and availability of power, its role in nationalistic agendas and systems of visibility, whether economic or politically motivated, are at the core of my interests and my practice attempts to materialize these conditions through a spatial encounter with the artwork. This is instigated through a row of blinking lights with a frenzy of wires or witnessing the life cycle of plants. In each of these instances, the work changes with time and is subject to conditions outside of the maker or the viewer.”
The Bonnie Bronson Fund was established in 1991 under the aegis of the Oregon Community Foundation to award an annual fellowship to an artist living and working in the Pacific Northwest. The fund was inspired by the memory of Oregon artist Bonnie Bronson who died in a climbing accident in August of 1990. Bonnie’s art works included enamel on steel sculpture, welded and painted steel collages, painting and carpet design, and were considered a powerful force in the Pacific Northwest art community in her lifetime.
Since 1992, the Bonnie Bronson Fund has selected twenty-six fellows through a confidential nomination process. The guiding principles are to advance and encourage creative and intellectual growth in a working artist of the Pacific Northwest region, specifically Oregon and Washington. The award is a cash prize and purchase of a work of art for the Bonnie Bronson Collection, which is housed at Reed College and displayed prominently throughout campus. Artists may not apply for this award and the new Fellow is informed with a simple phone call. Past recipients include: Christine Bourdette, Judy Cooke, Ronna Neuenschwander, Fernanda D’Agostino, Carolyn King, Lucinda Parker, Judy Hill, Adriene Cruz, Helen Lessick, Ann Hughes, Malia Jensen, Christopher Rauschenberg, Kristy Edmunds, Paul Sutinen, Bill Will, Laura Ross-Paul, MK Guth, Marie Watt, David Eckard, Nan Curtis, Pat Boas, Wynne Greenwood, Vanessa Renwick, Cynthia Lahti, Lynne Woods Turner, and Susie Lee.
Family and friends established the Bonnie Bronson Fund in her memory in 1991 as a special interest fund under the aegis of the Oregon Community Foundation. The purpose of the fund was to publish a catalog documenting Bronson’s work and life, and to award an annual fellowship. Publication of the catalog coincided with the Bronson retrospective exhibition mounted by the Portland Art Museum in 1993.
The Bonnie Bronson Fellows
1992 Christine Bourdette
1993 Judy Cooke
1994 Ronna Neuenschwander
1995 Fernanda D’Agostino
1996 Carolyn King
1997 Lucinda Parker
1998 Judy Hill
1999 Adriene Cruz
2000 Helen Lessick
2001 Ann Hughes
2002 Malia Jensen
2003 Christopher Rauschenberg
2004 Kristy Edmunds
2005 Paul Sutinen
2006 Bill Will
2007 Laura Ross-Paul
2008 MK Guth
2009 Marie Watt
2010 David Eckard
2011 Nan Curtis
2012 Pat Boas
2013 Wynne Greenwood
2014 Vanessa Renwick
2015 Cynthia Lahti
2016 Lynne Woods Turner
2017 Susie Lee
2018 Kristan Kennedy
2019 Tannaz Farsi