Shirin Mohtashami (Kouladjie) - Remembering Series

What truck?...what bus?


A montage of Shirin Mohtashami (Kouladjie) as a portrait of Nadia (She knows)

It just happened, Shirin Mohtashami and Kambiz Kouladjie gathered their stuff and left to New York. The Kouladjies where not to be found or even cared about their past, friends, whatever. This was a conscious break. Yet, I have fond memories of the Iranian French speaker trained to be a doctor in France, then decided to become an artist. Shirin and I even had a show together at the College's art gallery, Gallery 76. I remember her collages, her love of Nadia Comăneci and her great eye as she assisted, directed and oversaw Kambiz's film productions. I think that is the one of the reasons Kambiz married her, just to keep her selfishly to himself, her creative ability to see things dissected and cut away.


As I sift through Shirin Kouladjie's the day of my life collages.....an eerie premonition my fellow pass belongs in the dust of my urn

Once at their home in Toronto, I remember Shirin preparing meat, then she added a pinch of seasoning and ate it RAW. Try it, try it. In 1998, Shirin Kouladjie began an daily updated online montage art called Photomontage using composite photographic images pasting together as individual stills or vintage film loop clips. Then, her site was honoured as Yahoo's Site of the Day. I always enjoyed Shirin's company, and her sensitiveness and caring qualities made mention of a friend who had a Bitchy reputation, Ana Rewakowicz.


Shirin-Five-A, from 2006. A filtering of dreams superimposed with dolls and libraries, swimming pools fused between the fanning pages of a book