Happiness is a Choice: Pari Ehsan
Pari Ehsan believes that the combination of fashion and art turn into endless possibilities. She also underlines that she takes slow steps towards reality with her multitude of identities and unlimited imagination. She interprets her work as the “reason she came to existence in this world” and is further attracted to the magnitude of creativity’s influence on sharing. Together, we set out on a journey to the union of unknown worlds.
What urges you to create a platform for art and fashion?
I believe art brings hope and meaning to society as well as allowing us to feel a shift in perception, this questioning is essential to our growth and evolution individually and as a whole. Fashion is expression it gives us the confidence and the platform to be the vision we see for ourselves, marry these two worlds and the possibilities are infinite.
You’re an architect/interior designer/contributor/editor/consultant… You’ve got a lot of “slash”es. Which identity feeds you the most?
The “slash” feeds me the most, dipping in and out of these realms letting them swirl together and coalesce, making myself uncomfortable by making others uncomfortable when I merge their world with something unknown is a catalyst for an expansiveness and an opening of mind.
How do you feel about being a creative woman in today’s world?
I feel like it is why I was put on this earth at this time.
What has been your most memorable art memory?
Tricky to say! It has been an interesting journey, but I think the feeling I never will forget is when I had been working on Pari Dust for almost a year with my mom as my most avid reader and fan and definitely less than a thousand followers cumulatively on every platform and an obsession and energy for enacting these art and fashion dialogues unlike anything I’d ever felt. I had decided to go on a solo pilgrimage right after the new year to Marfa, Texas. I reached out to some art schools in Austin to see if the photography department could recommend a photographer who may be interested in collaborating so I met Wynn in El Paso, rented a car and we drove 3 hours together to Marfa where we visited the Chianti Foundation and shot Donald Judd’s iconic Untitled 15 Works in Concrete, Prada Marfa by Elmgreen & Dragset and a group exhibition at Ballroom Marfa. On the eve of the second day, after shooting the former two land art installations we returned to the Thunderbird Hotel the only place where the phone worked when connected to Wi-Fi and my inbox and Instagram where going off, I had a trippy twilight zone moment and come to find out that Buzzfeed had featured me and my account had gone a bit viral. That day where I had an almost transcendental experience with Donald Judd’s works set in an environment that felt so vast with a sky that makes you long for it sharing that with someone I had just met 24 hours before is one that I will never forget. That was the moment where the opportunity to make my dream work my focus and my livelihood was presented to me and it still feels like I was handed a gift from God.
When hobbies become your job, sometimes we unavoidably want to get away from them. What do you do to get away from work, to have fun?
Yes, I know what you mean ha! I like to go into nature or I like to go somewhere and dance my ass off, by myself or with my friends.
Compared to a few years back, what kind of changes do you observe in yourself?
I understand now that in order to realize the ideas that I want to explore that are much bigger than I am that I need help and to relinquish control is hard for me but being able to find your people and work together to make something is beautiful.
What has been the best advice you’ve received so far?
Happiness is a choice, you wake up every day and you envision the world you want to exist in and create and it can be the existence of your wildest dreams and if you stay true to your vision it will come to form.
What is keeping you busy lately?
The endless mission to discover and uncover places, people and works that are emotionally affecting and arresting and then how to convey and share that to the world. Also getting in those brains, having the dialogue with those who are making the work to give the visual narrative the depth and dimension it calls for.
Your favorite coffee table book?
Encyclopedia of Flowers Part 2 by Makoto Azuma & Shunsuke Shiinoke.
An Instagram account you check every day?
@paridust (She laughs)
Your favorite ‘getaway’ hotel?
The Parker Palm Springs.
What’s next?
It has been on my heart to visit the culture that has been formative in my appreciation for the arts and is so ingrained in me. I finally received my Iranian birth certificate and passport and will travel to where my father was born and where much of my family still lives this year.
Bits and Pieces…
Phone calls a day?
Depends on the day
Messages a day?
Depends on the drama
Hours for yourself?
I take the early mornings for myself to do meditation and yoga.
People you would call real friends?
I feel like a lucky girl to have a lot.
Wake up time?
7 am.