7x7x7 Series: Mojdeh Tarighat
Writer and mathematician Mojdeh Tarighat is the first featured artist in our sixth 7x7x7 Series, which asks 7 questions to 7 Charlottesville artists and is published once a week for 7 weeks. Artist interviews and studio visits were conducted by our summer intern, Kalista Diamantopoulos. Photos were taken by Benita Mayo.
Photo Credit: Benita Mayo
This summer's series is presented by The Seven Society and features artists affiliated with the University of Virginia.
Intro written by Kalista Diamantopoulos. Published August 10, 2022.
Rain patters on the window of the New City Arts Artist-in-Residence studio — a gentle background noise as writer and mathematician Mojdeh Tarighat taps away on her laptop, with a journal and small cherry-shaped eraser on the desk beside her. In this studio space, Mojdeh has spent the past five months working on her novel.
On the wall behind her is a long cork-board with various pieces of paper onto which she has scrawled in black pen story outlines and character descriptions. Mojdeh is exploring academia and the American South through her novel which follows a graduate student named Pilgrim at the University of Virginia, originally from New England, and her mythologized ideas of the South.
Through this book, Mojdeh intends to deconstruct the coming-of-age genre — a genre that is less applicable in today’s world where we are constantly bombarded with so many influences that shape our values, not just singular, drastic changes or “magical adventures.”
While her novel is set in Virginia, Mojdeh was born and raised in Los Angeles and received her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her interest in Virginia and the South emerged far before her move to the area from reading Southern literature, and only grew as she experienced the first year of her P.h.D at the University of Virginia.
Mojdeh is an avid reader. While she used to only read classics, she now reads more contemporary novels to get a better understanding of who her peers are and what they are writing about. Of the seventeen books she read this year, her favorite was a re-reading of Jeffrey Eugenides’ “The Marriage Plot.”
1. Describe what you are currently working on?
My goal is to complete my first novel by the end of the year. I’m looking at what lies in the place of the classic coming-of-age genre, as I believe that in a modern setting, this form no longer exists, or at least not in the same way. Parts of it are inspired by my first year earning a PhD in math at UVA. The American South, academia, and loneliness are major themes.
2. What is your ideal creative environment?
I thrive in a quiet place outside my home—I get distracted easily at the house! In Charlottesville, I’ve often gone to the Tea Bazaar when I'm not in my space at New City Arts. But in a broader sense, my ideal creative environment is one of exchanging work with other artists I trust. I love hearing what others are working on and bouncing ideas off each other.
3. How has Charlottesville impacted your artistic work and life as an artist?
The South was interesting to me before I moved here from California, mainly because of all the writers I'd read. That vision's mostly evaporated, but I see its shadow sometimes. The South still affects much of my work. Otherwise, Charlottesville's introduced me to a handful of creatives, and I'm grateful for the community. My artist friends challenge, inspire, and support me in equal measures.
Photo Credit: Benita Mayo
4. What frustrates you as an artist?
I don't like seeing great artists having the merits of their work reduced to just their identities. Less concerningly, sometimes I feel disappointed when I remember that nobody really reads anymore.
5. How do you manage a work-life balance as an artist?
Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that it's possible to balance everything perfectly while making my best work, but I've found that striving for consistency (over frenzied spurts of progress) helps a ton. And regularly setting small, concrete goals that I can actually accomplish does more to keep me productive and creative than working myself to the bone.
6. Describe your favorite creative work by another Charlottesville artist?
Jiajun Yan's oil painting, I Am Made in China, has stuck with me since I first saw it at McGuffey during her time in the incubator. The self-portrait shows the artist being assembled in a factory. Her eye captures loneliness, confusion, and introspection, which she boldly confronts.
I also love everything by Kathryn Wingate, the Director of Curation at IX Art Park. Her paintings are surreal and resplendent.
7. How do your other interests influence your art?
The pacing and meditative qualities of certain films often inspire me. I think most great filmmakers must be great readers, too. Wong Kar Wai is my favorite filmmaker, though I also love the depth of some Tarkovsky stuff and the depictions of families in Ozu and Kiarostami films. And though I'm reluctant to admit it, I also think my work as a mathematician has influenced me a bit. I’m more patient for it, and curious, too.
Mojdeh Tarighat is an emerging writer of literary fiction and a mathematician. She was the Spring 2022 New City Artist-in-Residence. As an artist, Mojdeh explores themes of isolation, shame, and boredom against backdrops including the American South and western academia.
Her forthcoming novel is set in Virginia and questions the myths of this region and the disillusionment it breeds.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mojdeh received her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. She relocated to Charlottesville to earn her doctoral degree in mathematics. At the University of Virginia, she studies algebraic combinatorics under the guidance of Professor Jennifer Morse. She enjoys sharing her research to wider audiences through talks that knit together basic notions of symmetry, countable sets of discrete abstract objects, and geometry.
The opinions expressed in this interview are solely those of the artist and do not necessarily represent the policies or positions of NCAI.
This summer's series is presented by The Seven Society and features artists affiliated with the University of Virginia.
