Collaborative art unites diverse group of women

In her exhibition, visual artist Yasaman Tarighatmanesh asked participants to share what it means to be a woman. To explore this, she invited five women to collaborate on a single piece of art while sharing their personal answers. Through the process, the women found connection and community.

Tarighatmanesh, from Iran, and her coleader Elham Zafaremili brought together five female artists from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine, Lebanon and Canada to work on the art piece. The creative process was part of Tarighatmanesh’s 2023 exhibition “Portraits of Liberation”. The women gathered over several weeks in a studio provided by the Saskatoon Open Door Society and shared stories about their experiences as women in their home countries.

“Art is a reason to connect us together,” she says. “The piece brought us closer together. We didn’t find many differences or borders between us. We were all in the same country, the same place.”

Canadian artist Susan Muench, one of the contributors, found the collaborative process to be a journey in finding commonalities across cultures. She painted a red circle on the canvas to represent menstruation, and texturized the background with handwritten script detailing inequalities and stigma around menstruating. She then decoupaged photographs of her co-artists’ eyes onto the circle and had them write in their own language around it.

“There are these threads connecting women and when I notice them it can be very powerful,” Meunch says. The exhibition was inspired by the Iranian women’s movement of 2022, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman, who died in police custody in Iran after refusing to wear a hijab.

Through her art, Tarighatmanesh aims to draw on the strength and resilience of women exercising their rights within Canada and around the world. Hearing the stories of the contributing artists helped her to examine her own struggles.

“For me, collaborative work surpasses individual artwork because it carries a valuable life lesson. It's not just a visual piece; it's about the lessons I carry forward to shape my future,” Tarighatmanesh says.

Tarighatmanesh created an environment where the women felt free to express themselves individually — offering support, but letting the artists build their connection and the art piece on their own. Muench calls it “one of the most beautiful processes I’ve ever experienced with a group of women.”

Muench says, “it came organically. I felt a feeling of connectedness and community.”

This project received funding from the Artists in Communities grant program, offered by SK Arts, in partnership with SaskCulture, with funding from the Sask Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation.