Former banker turns to art in fight to survive

Shahin Arjomand rediscovers his creative side while recovering from a brain tumour

Iranian artist Shahin Arjomand's work can safely be called different from other creative works that are often exhibited in Dubai. For not many of them would be created using only the left hand.

After he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1997, Arjomand's life changed. He thinks it changed for the better as he re-discovered art.

Prior to the 36-year old's diagnosis, he was an investment banker in New York and a DJ.
"I started DJing in clubs at the age of 16," he says with a laugh. "I'd go in and play music but wasn't legal for anything else," he adds.

Though he was naturally inclined to art, it was only at the time that he was recovering from his tumour that he found the time to pursue it.

"I didn't want to die," he says of the fight to stay alive.

The pain, suffering, chemotherapy and radiation may have got rid of the tumour but it left him paralysed on his entire right side. Things have slowly improved now though as a strict daily routine of physiotherapy has revived movement on his right leg and it's only his right arm that needs to recover. Arjomand is sure it will.

"I've come this far, the rest can't be too hard," he says and turns to his work. Arjomand's art is difficult to understand and could even appear to some as funky computer screensaver designs.

< He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I work on the computer, so maybe." However, each piece has a story, a source of inspiration and a lesson for him.

He stands in front of a piece he calls orchids, which is pretty - pun intended - abstract. "It's about a girl," he says coyly. "I judged her too quickly and in the end - just seven days - it ended abruptly," he says.

The reference to orchids? "Oh she loved orchids."

And the lesson? "Don't judge so quickly. It's a reminder to me," he says with a laugh.
Arjomand's music and art in a sense, do go hand in hand.

The music he loves, he describes as "Boom Boom," and he says he has more than 5,000 CDs. "I started working on art by creating CD covers for all my music. I still do it, but there's how it all started," he says turning his attention to another by-product of his art.

Scarves. Silk scarves to be precise - that are in a whole range of hues and patterns - and reflect his desire to express. Arjomand moved to Dubai a year ago and though he misses the energy of New York is quite satisfied - for the moment - with the art scene.

"New York rocks," he says and adds that he has absolutely no desire to return to Iran. "They threw us out," he says of the years when his family left and sought asylum in the United States.

For now, though, Arjomand, is busy sorting out details of his debut in Dubai on UN Day, when he is expected to receive a letter from the organisation felicitating him and on working towards a complete recovery, with the solid support of his mother.