Bahar Behbahani's research-based practice approaches landscape as a metaphor for politics and poetics. Behbahani looks into cultural landscapes both historically and in a contemporary context, posing urgent questions that consider the ways in which people negotiate space and place. Through a range of media—such as painting, video, installation and performative talks—she excavates historiography to shift the interactions between knowledge and power in historic and imperial contexts to a poetic body of work.
Behbahani is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award for an anticipated project Ispahan Flowers Only Once, a community garden inspired by Persian garden design, philosophy, plants and flora, which will bring people together to take part and re-activate the unseen histories by gathering and gardening.
Born in Tehran, Iran, into an artistic family of writers, painters, musicians and puppeteers, Behbahani relocated to the US and currently works in Brooklyn, NY.
Bahar Behbahani
Studios
Putnam
Bahar Behbahani worked in the Putnam studio.
Originally known simply as Graphics Studio, this building was converted to its current use between 1972 and 1974 through a grant from the Putnam Foundation. Before this transformation, the building served as both a powerhouse and pump house for the property. Well water was drawn from a large cistern and…