Afshin Chizari’s life and career  is a united response to three elements of memory, Dreams, and paradox. These are essential substances through his work. Besides his melancholic romanticism, his reaction towards these elements creates a sense of antiquity which has a self-punishing aspect to it. Afshin’s obsession with details is the most obvious exposition of this mentality. For him, this slowness, which is caused by the nature of his technique, is the modus operandi of mnemonic comprehension. As he frequently declares his rage towards our new era of being inaccurate, he produces imaginary criteria where we have to step back from our era and pay attention to everything. The present body of work is narrating his autobiographical text of some tragically lost elements. They are thought through time, carefully nurtured, and are presented as an interpretation playground.  As he renders his art, he puts weeks of focus on his loss to gain a very accurate reading of it.
Afshin Chizari is a paradox within the paradox. He lives in a paradox. He contributes to the paradox. He is infuriated with this paradox, yet he paints and prints the paradox itself!
Growing up in the south-eastern suburbs of Tehran, Chizari is native to a place where the entirety of “our” art is a tourist. After being taught through a tremendous thread of teachers and elite Iranian artists, he runs a Factory down in southern Tehran; A factory where you can find this amazing print series as well as a confident personality and a huge collection of his paintings. This is where a part of our future is taking shape, though it calls a colossal need for nurturing and care.
His works include a strong codex of dreams1 and snapshots. By the use of his vast collection of snapshots and images taken during the past six years or so, he has access to the stronghold of Southend’s culture. Chizari searches through this archive objectively pick a thing out of snapshots and give birth to it in his works as a relatively different semiosis. What he does while selecting the objects is more like what a poet does while selecting the words.
Kiarash Alimi/ 2011