Armita Raafat
2009 Swing Space Resident, 77 Water Street
Armita Raafat received her BFA from Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran and completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. Many of her installations employ the distinguishing structures, patterns, and motifs of Islamic and Persian architecture and in her recent works she specifically refers to muqarnas, an architectural ornament comprised of three-dimensional parts arranged in tiers. Her installations are fashioned as if in a state of disrepair or even ruin and while they symbolize destruction and what is lost for her what remains is an unshakable desire for creation and survival. Armita’s works have been featured in several group shows in Chicago and Tehran. Her work was recently featured in the UBS 12 x 12 New Artists/New Work exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in May 2009 and has an upcoming solo exhibition at the Three Walls Gallery, Chicago in January 2010.
During her residency at the Swing Space, Armita will be working on an Installation in dialogue with the space that deals with fragments of muqarnas which convey a sense of fragility and non-permanence.
