Roxanne Varzi


I am extremely excited and looking forward to my event with Peter Sellars on April 25, at 3:30pm [info]

*Current:*
		*TO ACCESS MY MARCH 9, 2017 ARTICLE IN THE GERMAN EDITION OF Le Monde diplomatique CLICK HERE*

*Current:*
		*READ MY FEBRUARY 21, 2017 LRB BLOG POSTING HERE*

*Upcoming:*
		Annual AES Conference: "Exposure", Thursday, March 30 to Saturday, April 1, 2017, Stanford University [info]

*Upcoming:*
		Festival of the Arts 2017: April 5-9, Cal State University, Sacramento [info]

*Upcoming:*
I will be at the Farhang Foundation's Booth at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on Saturday April 22, from 2-4pm. Stop by and Say Hello! [info]

MY MOST RECENT BOOK IS A GOLD MEDAL WINNER FROM INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARD (IPPY)!!!

AVAILABLE IN BOOK, KINDLE, AND AUDIOBOOK FORMATS HERE!!

WATCH PROMO VIDEO!

Latest Reviews:

Interview with Dean George Van Den Abbeele->

Recent Events:

Salton Sublime

(2017, Premiere)
Sound/video piece

by Roxanne Varzi

5 and 12 February 2017, 2pm - 9pm

Photo: Roxanne Varzi, Salton Sea, California

Poets and painters of the 18th century sought a religious experience in the sublime continence of nature. They enjoyed meditating on the beauty of nature’s danger and the inherent tension and possibility it always offered of sudden and assured death as a result for example, of a fall from a high cliff, a storm at sea, a volcano’s eruption or chasm opening in the earth to swallow one whole. They also meditated on the vastness, infinity, magnificence and the resulting exultation, the possibility of being raised up, temporarily overwhelmed in a spiritual sense and being made to feel small in the face of overwhelming emotion and the awe which nature can inspire. This transcendental desire has humans seeking a god or something greater in nature. Salton Sublime meditates on the meaning of sublime today in the midst of massive environmental degradation. The Salton Sea in southern California brings a whole new meaning to the sublime as it contains both the awe-inspiring possibilities of a spiritual experience as well as terror and abject fear especially of death. This project is a remnant of that same heritage of sublime art that seeks to engage the beauty and the terrifying danger of nature while examining both our reliance on and abuse of nature… it asks, what is ultimately left of the sublime? Can we inspire awe from terror?

VISIT OHRENHOCH ON THE NEW WEBSITE ohrenhoch.berlin

Media Festival, CAMRA AT PENN, Philadelphia,

March 17 & 18, 2017 [info]

Pannelist on "Engaging Iran" conference.

October 21, 2016 [info]

San Jose State University

Book Reading and Signing at the Book Culture Book Store

August 24, 2016 [info]

450 Columbus Ave., New York, New York

Book Reading and Signing at the Elliot Bay Book Company

June 20, 2016 [info]

1521 Tenth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122


BOOKS COMBINED		*Biographical Essay: Persia is my Heart, January 2016, [info]*

Book Reading and Signing at Pages Bookshop

December 15, 2015

19560 Grand River Ave., Detroit, MI 48223 [info]


		"Iran nuclear deal offers flicker of hope to Persians in Southern California", Interview for the article, JULY 22, 2015 [info]


		“Fictive Truths” Aeon Magazine of Ideas and Culture, June 2015 [info]


		“Ethnographic Fiction: The Space Between” Savage Minds, Anthropology blog [info]

“Keeping it Reel: ‘Reality’s’ Role in the Production and Reception of

Independent Iranian Cinema” Film International Volume 12 no. 3 [info]

		Impolite Conversations, meta-ethno-non/fictional representation of the conversations; An online web series by John Jackson Jr. and Cora Daniels, November 25, 2014 [info]
Impolite Conversations

		Pictura Poesis: The interplay of poetry, image and ethnography in Forough Farrokhzad’s The House is Black, vol 18, issue 9/Sept 2014 [info]

ANTHROPOLOGIES NUMÉRIQUES / 2ND EDITION, Le Cube, Paris,

March 19-20, 2014 [info]


		Media Festival, CAMRA AT PENN, Philadelphia, Sunday March 2, 2014 [info]


		Performing Iran Conference, February 22, 2014[info]


		Spaces for the Future: Religion in Urban Place-making group member since 2014 [info]

Facing the Future: The Artistic and Diasporic Afterlife of the Iran-Iraq War,

Anthropology of the Middle East,

Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2013, pp. 40-62(23)

[info]

Iran Art & Discourse, Oct 26, 2013,

Asia Society, NYC, [info]

Noor Iranian Film Festival,

Oct 18-24, 2013 Los Angeles [info]

"Whole World Blind", online sound installation

and accompanying essay,

Public Books, April 2013

The Whole World Blind, Ethnographic Terminalia at SOMArts,

In collaboration with American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2012 San Francisco, CA


		January 25, 2012, 9:30 PM PST Roxanne Varzi at Soundwalk and other projects[info]


		December 16, 2012 Berlin: Sound performance and Talk @ Project Uqbar


		*My documentary film "Plastic Flowers Never Die"* is distributed through DER**