Monstera in Conversation

In season two, episode six, Monstera engages in a distinctive conversation with Tamanna's spirit...a seeker, an empath, and a forever champion of LOVE. She truly believes a strong and steering undercurrent of LOVE...in everything we do...will heal us all eventually and lead us to BELIEVE. She has pursued Accounts and Business in academics from India as well as another MBA in George Mason University near Washington DC. She is decent with her writing. Especially poetry and love to sing, connect with people, cook, explore the why, how and 'where to' of the spirit.

In season two, episode five, Monstera engages in a distinctive conversation with Tanmay Shah, a creative individual from India who is known for his work as an NFT artist and curator and international speaker. Tanmay is a frequent host for #Rocklaz Radio & Spaces. 

Lapis Lazuli has been an artist for more than 20 years. She started her journey as an artist with painting. Then, she studied Sculpture at Tehran Fine Art University. Later she moved to Italy and studied Decoration in the Accademia di belle arti di Roma. Her artworks are about everything she can see, feel, and think about, from war, social problems, mental disorders, and feminism to animals and nature. In her personal life, art has always played the most important role to help her to survive and rise again.

The episode three from season two features a unique conversation between Monstera and Choen Lee. Her name is Choen Lee, which sounds like Chun Li from Street Fighter. She has been a cartoonist, an architect's minion, a commercial photographer, and currently an illustration artist fully submerged in web3.

She is very much influenced by pop culture: comics, manga, anime, movies. Her work either steals a smile or challenges your perception of how things are.

She Exhibited and published worldwide.

Her web3 self is a robot beyond gender and is probably more than semi fictional. “Don't believe everything you see on the internet” Choen Lee said.

The episode two from season two features a unique conversation between Monstera and Felicia Cotoman. Felicia was born in 1992 in a big family in a small village, from Republic of Moldova. She has always been curious and fascinated by human nature. From a young age she studied music, dancing, drawing, acting and got more interested in how she can serve our global community by using her creative nature. She is a multidisciplinary artist, in 2011 she moved to Romania to study there. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in fine art, currently living in Cluj-Napoca.

Starting with high school to present day she has been involved as an activist, with many organizations and projects that will bring people closer and understanding towards each other. Having a wide range of ways of expressing herself through art, creating illustrations, paintings, art installations, art performances, acting… Her goal, through her art is to: Bring to the surface not what separates us but what brings us together. Presenting ways and possibilities in which you can connect with yourself. Going beyond aesthetics, ultimately her art is a tool for healing the soul.

The episode one from season two features a unique conversation between Monstera and Joe Martine. Joe was born in Brooklyn and he currently lives in Düsseldorf, Germany. He loves making things that make people smile, He is enthusiastic about harvesting the most precious resource on planet earth, deep human connection. He loves influencing people to sing, dance and play. He puts his full faith in human beings and believes the future and our path ahead is bright. He is best known for making the world’s largest pom pom, but also for his performances, paintings, drawings, and other assorted motivational moments. He focused on renewable charm and sustainable merriment.

The twelfth episode features a unique conversation between Monstera and Donja Fard. Donja is an Iranian artist currently living and studying in Germany. She obtained her bachelor of painting from the University of Science and Culture in Tehran, Iran. Currently, she is studying Master of Fine Art at Hochschule der Bildende Künste Saar of Saarbrücken in Germany.

Her works cover all areas of Fine Arts that deals with concepts, artist researches and the principle of artists selective perception concerning humanized nature. Her artworks mostly consist of multimedia installations including objects, light, video, sound and their individual components which have been featured in different solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Germany, Turkey, Georgia, and Iran in the past seven years.

Music Copyright: Ewald Pfleger

German Text Copyright: Reinhard Horn

The eleventh episode features a conversation between Monstera and Isoke Salaam. Isoke is an east coast publicist with private clients within fashion and the arts. Isoke has over a decade of luxury fashion experience with clients including but not limited to Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Paul Stuart and Kate Spade. She relishes in telling fashion and art stories in an inspiring way to elevate brands. Isoke connects brands directly to magazine writers and editors for maximum exposure while solidifying brands and executing innovate digital strategies. Her approach to luxury branding and creative strategy elevates every brand she works with. Isoke is a PR powerhouse, an avid art fan and a fashion lover. You can typically find Isoke, someplace in Paris.

The tenth episode features a conversation between Monstera and Dr. Sherko Kirmanj. Sherko Kirmanj earned his PhD in International Studies at the University of South Australia. He ‎is the author of several books in English, Arabic and Kurdish. ‎Dr. Sherko has published thirteen articles and six book chapters in international refereed journals ‎and academic volumes in English. At the same time, he has published numerous ‎newspaper and website articles in Kurdish. He worked at the Ministry of Higher Education in ‎Kurdistan Region concurrently lectured at the College of Law and Politics at the Salahaddin ‎University Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Dr. Sherko was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of South Australia ‎in 2012 and a Senior Lecturer at the University Utara Malaysia, Malaysia in 2013. He ‎is Assistant Professor and the Chairperson of the Department of International ‎Relations, the University of Sharjah in the UAE since 2018.

The ninth episode features a conversation between Monstera and Natalya Konforti. Natalya is a designer, artist and workshop facilitator based in Dubai. As a veteran of the fast fashion industry, a decade designing collections for high street retailers across Europe, North America and China sparked a desire to shift towards more creative and sustainable projects.

She launched Glitches & Stitches in 2017 to promote the value of artisanal craftsmanship and the importance of having a creative outlet through interactive workshops and tutorials -aiming to “help design junkies become self-sufficient”.

She has since collaborated with renowned companies including Dubai Mall, Charlotte Tilbury and Levi’s; as well as regional fairs such as Dubai DesignWeek. Natalya’s workshops and events have been highlighted in numerous publications including The National, Cosmopolitan ME, and Friday magazine. Natalya was cited as one of 12 UAE Environmental Thought Leaders by Livehealthy in 2020 and her writing has appeared in Pop Sugar ME and Marie Claire Arabia. In keeping with the mantra “community over competition”, she also runs monthly non-profit community events to bring together members of the local creative industry in a supportive environment.

The eighth episode features a conversation between Monstera and Dr. Hamoon Khelghat-Doost. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Üsküdar University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS). His main fields of interest include gender, media, forced migration, political violence, international security, terrorism, and sustainable development with special focus on the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. He is author of the book The Strategic Logic of Women in Jihadi Organizations: From Operation to State Building (Springer, 2021). Dr. Khelghat-Doost is also a Next Generation Leader on Gender, Peace, and Security (GPS) at Women in International Security (WIIS), Washington D.C., United States as well as a member of the Board of Academia at the Academy of Security, Intelligence and Risk Studies in Singapore.

The seventh episode features a unique conversation between Monstera and Klez Brandar, a French photographer who travelled the world. After living in South America, New Zealand, Italy and Spain, he finally landed in Prague with his suitcases and films.

Since then, Klez walks around his adopted city, skateboard in one hand and the analogue camera in the other. Klez embarked on the adventure Triste Mesure (Sad Measurement), grasping snapshots week after week that feed the poetic appetites of his accomplices. Since then, Klez made more pictures, had more different ideas, met new people, asked himself other questions and skated other kilometers through Prague. He is still in perpetual move and not missing any chance to create something new by interaction, by taking a picture, writing few lines, singing some notes. 

The sixth episode features a unique conversation between Monstera and Max Ryynänen, a Helsinki-based Finnish philosopher and theorist of art, who works at Aalto University. Furthermore, He has been gallerist, he has written manuscripts and done performances, and he is a writer – with two essay books out and the first novel coming out in fall 2021. He is the Editor-in-Chief of two scholarly journals, Popular Inquiry and The Journal of Somaesthetics. More: http://maxryynanen.net.

The fifth episode features a conversation between Monstera and Yosra Emamizadeh. Yosra is a visual artist who finds inspiration by exploring topics about womanhood, introspection, and spirituality. She is a lover of nature, Islamic Art, Persian design, and contemplates spiritual and existential concepts in her work. Yosra started drawing from a young age while growing up in Tehran. After completing her studies at the American University of Beirut, she attended the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and later earned her Master’s degree in Museum Studies from Harvard University. As part of her alternative art practice, Yosra produces her podcast “Tavān Studio in Conversation” where she interviews female artists and makers in the MENASA region and the diaspora about their practice and creative living.

The third episode features a unique conversation between Monstera and Hamed Babaei, a visual artist and composer who currently resides in Tehran, Iran. Furthermore, Hamed is a founder at Baramant Music Band since 2007. His studio practice enclouds visual arts as well as musical performances. Hamed tries to awake senses through his art. The major importance of subjects has been an integral part of Hamed’s artistic temperament.

The second episode features a conversation between Monstera and Dr. Izmer Ahmad, an artist-academician who currently teaches at the College of Fine Arts & Design, University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Trained both in studio practice and academic  research, Izmer's professional activities encompass creative production as well as academic publication.

The first episode is an introduction that features Elham Shafaei's (the person behind this project) conversation with the Monstera plant to introduce the whole project. This first shall be followed later on with a whole series of conversation between the plant and other individuals.