9 Questions with Qeas Pirzad

Qeas Pirzad is a mixed media artist featured in Al-Tiba9 magazine ISSUE04, interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj.

Born in Amsterdam to Afghani parents, and studied at the Royal Academy of Art at the Hague, Qeas Pirzad learned very early in life to navigate between two opposite worlds. He uses creativity as a bridge and battles with a sense of belonging that deviates from his ancestors. Qeas Pirzad’s most recent body of work takes a critical view of the creation of personalized existence while reflecting on societal and ancestral influences. His art delves into deconstructing the man-made perception of reality and the examination of inherited subjectivity in the subconscious. He achieves this by visually exploring the space between the paradoxical principles of figurative and abstract art.

www.qeaspirzad.com | @qeas.pirzad

Qeas, before talking about your art, could you tell us about yourself? Who is behind Qeas Pirzad?

Qeas is a messenger of his ancestors, an amalgamation of various cultures, tongues, and belief systems. A work of art that is continually growing, like a collage where layers are added on top of each other with every human interaction, cutting and pasting these collected bits and pieces every day to make it more and more complete, or like a medley of songs that grows into a piece of music combining tunes from various sources reaching the highest form of human expression. My destiny is to fulfill The experience that is Qeas.

How did you decide to pursue a career in art? What inspired you?

Expressing myself through art, giving an idea, concept, or thought a tangible form is something that has always come very naturally to me. I never had to think about why I wanted to create art. However, turning a passion into a career was a big step for me, especially since the art world can be intimidating because the road to "success" can be very rocky, and not everyone can turn this passion into their livelihood. But having to split myself into two parts, where on the one hand I was dedicating my time to a stable job and the other hand, there was space for me to be my creative self is not something that felt very balanced to me. I wanted to embody my creative self entirely, and that meant having to take a risk and fully dedicating my time to art.

How would you describe your artistic approach?

I take moments of what I experience in my life and use that as a foundation from where the body concepts of work then are created. I need to create art with intention, because I believe that a cause with intention will lead to an intentional effect, meaning that it is important that I establish what the message of each work is before I start visualizing the idea in any form. By making sure that the intention behind the work is present in every step from beginning to start, the final creation will also fully embody the thought, the message, the purpose I had set in the beginning. This way, the work comes from an honest and personal place and is used to start a conversation about a particular topic.

Can you give an example of an artwork that you have made that you feel especially successful? And talk about how and why you ended up with the result that pleases you?

As an artist you always try to recreate the imagery of what you see in your mind, you try to make the work look as close to what you imagined to be, at least that's how I view it. And sometimes the medium you are using doesn't work with you or your skillset isn't quite there where you'd like it to be, but when you create something, and it looks like your vision, it exudes the intention you set for it in the beginning, that's when I am satisfied with it. There are many of them, but if I had to choose one it would be the painting "The freeing," it was one of the first paintings I made for this body of work "The

first awakening," and it was also one of the early oil paintings I had ever created. I remember looking at the big empty canvas and reminding myself what the message of the work was. Once I was finished, I knew that because of the intention, the message was present in every step of creating this work; that therefore the result was more than pleasing to me. 

You use your painting to analyze and deconstruct the results of your reality. What reality are you pointing to? 

The body of work "The first awakening" is mainly based around this reality. It's about living in a fact that is created for you and not by you. These can be influenced by society, culture, religion to what as expected from you to be. Then, to realize that your desire to live in a reality that is created by you, not for you. To lead you to deconstruct and reconstructing everything you have been taught and have learned into a state where everything around resonates with you. 

What do you find most challenging about being an afghani artist rooted in the Netherlands? 

Being born and raised in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, by Afghani parents, meant that I had to learn how to navigate between two different cultures. This, on its own, brings many external expectations of who you should be, whom you can become, and what is expected of you to be capable of doing. Your entire existence is prefabricated and placed upon you by everyone around you. But this image is created by the western interpretation of an Afghani, which in most cases has a negative connotation, and this goes beyond just the Dutch borders. It is, therefore, essential for me to not only showcase my authenticity, but also what I am capable of as Afghani and not just in the western world, but also the art world.

You seem to be into performance and theatre. How do these artist's body expressions complete your paintings?

I write poems for each painting, this will not only help the audience to interpret the painting, but it also shows the same work expressed in a different art form, which adds another layer to the depth of the artwork. I also believe that by adding another form of expression, as I did on the opening night of "The first awakening," where I did a spoken word performance together with MIKEY., The audience gets to experience the works through the voice and presence of the artist.

Are you working on any project that we will be able to see soon?

There are many projects I am working on right now! One of them is a body of work where I tap into the world of digital collage. The new series is called "Divine manifesting," and I talk about breaking free from the human-made frameworks that are forced upon us by society and only serve as a distraction from the connection with our higher self, the divine being. I have already shared some of the works on my social media!! For the rest of the projects, you'll have to watch me tightly, and I'll share them soon.

Qeas in three words...

Immersive Visual Experience