Sissi Farassat was born in 1969 in Tehran and moved with her family to Vienna in 1978, where she still lives and works today. She has been working as a photographer since 1991 and participated in the 1993 International Summer Academy under the direction of Nan Goldin. She was a student of Friedl Kubelka at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst Fotografie in Vienna (1993-94). She then received a scholarship from the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and the Arts to realize her series Self Portrait Paris.
Sissi Farassat's works are largely autobiographical and often reveal her personal history through a unique combination of influences from Persian and Viennese art and design. She began by changing her own expired passports, decorating them with sequins and pearls, and returning the passport from its original use to a unique work of art. Through her handicraft, Farassat isolates parts of the photograph and replaces the original background with a fine overlay. Hundreds of hours have been spent manually transforming each photo into a unique object. Farassat drastically changes the most inherent characteristics of the photographic medium: the immediacy of the camera and the ability to make multiple photographic prints. Instead, she takes the needle and thread to each print and sews thousands of crystals, pearls, and sequins by hand, turning her photos into a kind of tapestry. In doing so, she blurs the distinction between the photo and the object, the revealed and the hidden, and eliminates the subject from its original context. Farassat challenges our gaze and seems to rejoice in the ambivalence of her transformations. For her works she uses either intimate self-portraits or random snapshots of her friends and close acquaintances. The pictures are neither staged nor formally posed, but always seductive and somewhat mysterious.
Farassats works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Landesgalerie Linz, the Museum Vienna, the Nationalgalerie Poland, the Galerie Kashya Hildebrand in Zurich, the Fototriennale in Vienna, the Fotogalerie Vienna, the Hara Museum Tokyo and the Fotohof Salzburg. The works are represented in a number of important private and institutional collections, such as the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, MAK - Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Sammlung Essl in Vienna, Sammlung der Stadt Linz and Sammlung der Stadt Wien.
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Sissi Farassat, in focus Galerie, Köln, Germany
Sissi Farassat, Bildhalle, Zürich, Switzerland
2014
Sissi Farassat, Edwynn Houk Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2013
Sissi Farassat, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, NY
2010
FOREVER, MUSAMuseum auf Abruf, Vienna, Austria
2008
Es Ist, Was Es Ist, Galerie Viktor Bucher, Vienna, Austria
2007
SIOSEH#31, Galerie Blumberg, Vienna, Austria
Sissi, C ́est Moi, Scaloguye Galerie, Los Angeles, USA
2006
Von Rechts Nach Links und Wieder Zurück, LFK, Vienna, Austria
Return to Sender, Viktor Bucher, Vienna, Austria
2005
Nur Ich, Galerie Lisi Hämmerle, Bregenz, Austria
2003
Lichbildkunst, Nüttingen, Germany
Eins zu Eins, Sammlung Essl, Vienna, Austria
2002
An Kühlen Tagen, Kalco Galerie, Vienna, Austria
2 Leuchtkästen, Hidden Museum, Innsbruck, Austria
2001
Im Osten Nichts Neues, Kaufhaus Passagengalerie, Vienna, Austria
2000
Andere Objekte der Fotokünstlerin Sissi Farassat, Podroom, Vienna, Austria
1999
Portraits VI, AAI-Galerie, Vienna, Austria
1999
Architektur-Mode-Photographie-Literatur, Semper Depot, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna, Austria
Quenns Report, Semper Depot, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna, Austria
1998
Ich, ich immer ich, Cult Galerie, Vienna, Austria
1997
Ich, Galerie Cosmos, Vienna, Austria
Portraits V, Cité internationale des Arts, Paris, France
1996
Portraits IV, Fotogalerie im Wuk, Vienna, Austria
1994
Flächendiagonale, Finsterer Stern, Vienna, Austria
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014
Pose und Positionierung, Station21 Kunstraum Zürich, Switzerland
2013
Beyond Surface and Material: the meeting point between photography and textiles, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Rugby, UK
Emerging Artists Series, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, FL
The Political, Personal, and Mysterious, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
2012
2012 CCC project -Arab Contemporary Art: A Subtle Perfume, CANFoundation, Seoul, Korea
The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art, and Society, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Rutgers, NJ
2011
Contemporary Design by Contemporary Artists, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck
Standing Identity, Galerie Kashya Hildebrandt, Zürich, Switzerland
2010
Tracing Reality, Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, Switzerland
Staging Identity, Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, Switzerland
Aus der Sammlung: Surface-Oberfläche als Prinzip, Landesgalerie Linz am Oberösterreichischen Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria
“The Art of Design.” Quatier 21, Wien
2009
The Vienna Fashion Observatory, Quartier 21, Vienna, Austria
Sharp Chic–Über die Anziehungskraft des Kristallinen, Quartier 21, Vienna, Austria
2008
June Begins in May, Laleh June Galerie, Basel, Switzerland
Österreichische KünstlerInnen in Cordenons, Objektbild, Centro Aldo Moro, Cordenons, Italy
Lichtspuren: Fotografie aus der Sammlung, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Vienna
Left but a Trace, Cornerhouse, Manchester, England
2007
Taboo, Foto Fluss, Wien, Austria
SIOSEH#30, Museum of Vienna, Austria
2006
Object, Galeria Fondazione Studio Marangoni, Florence, Italy
Who is the Other?, National Galleryof Art, Poland
Bon Appétit, Galerie Lisi Hämmerle, Bregenz, Austria
2005
Lebt und Arbeitet auch in Wien, Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Vienna, Austria
Taboo, Fototriennale “Backlight 05”, Verein FLUSS, Vienna, Austria
Simultan, Zwei Sammlungen österreichischer Fotografie, Art Club, Vienna, Austria / Museum der Moderne Salzburg Mönchsberg, Salzburg, Austria
2004
PREVIEW, Galerie Schloss Mondsee, Mondsee, Austria
Räume, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria
Fauna und Flora, Galerie Wolrum, Vienna, Austria
Make Nite, S/T/A/R Vienna, Austria
2003
ISZW, Gemeinschaftsausstellung, Lacandona, Vienna, Austria
AMFL, Solar Grandjean de Montigny, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ISZW–RIO, 17. Internationaler Architekturkongress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ISZW–USA, Bristol, Rhode Island, org. vom östereichischen Kulturinstitut, New York, USA
2002
Design Now. Austria, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Differing Views, Unit F, Vienna, Austria
Innere Szene Wien, Gastausstellung in der Casa Privata, Heidulf Gerngross, Architecture Biennale Venice, Italy
Pogmahon.Art.Club, Sioseh18, Vienna, Austria
2001
Galerie Taxi, 27. Österreichischer Grafikwettbewerb 2001, Innsbruck, Austria
Verschiedene Welten, Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria
What is Architecture, Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna, Austria
Innere Szene Wien, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Wien, mak-nite, Vienna, Austria
Innere Szene Wien, NOMI Galerie, St. Petersburg, Russia
Innere Szene Wien, Russian Art Museum, Pärnu, Estonia
2000
Album00, Ausstellungsraum Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria
Miniaturen, Expo Hannover-Eisfabrik, Hannover, Germany
Time, Live, Solidarity, Documenta Seoul, Korea
I Love Fashion, ffwd galerie, Berlin, Germany
1999
Fast Forward, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna, Austria
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