<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">See below: If you are interested in reviewing a show by Fariba Hajamadi now up at UCR Arts, Dr. Judith Rodenbeck (MCS) will be happy to put you in touch with the artist.<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div>
<meta charset="UTF-8"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">—</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">James Tobias, Ph.D.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Professor <br>Chair, Department of English</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div>https://ucr.zoom.us/j/95465985946?pwd=Z1A4Yk1UZDhBTjY5UkJ5R1VQTWUvQT09<br><br><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: 9px;">"We at UCR would like to respectfully acknowledge and recognize our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of this land, water, and air: the Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples and all of their ancestors and descendants, past, present, and future. Today this meeting place is home to many Indigenous peoples from all over the world, including UCR faculty, students, and staff, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these homelands."</span></div></div></div></div></div>
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<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Judith Rodenbeck <judithr@ucr.edu><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Fariba Hajamadi looking for a writer</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;">January 14, 2026 at 11:00:08 AM PST<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Susan Laxton <susan.laxton@ucr.edu>, James Tobias <jtobias@ucr.edu>, Anna Betbeze <abetbeze@ucr.edu><br></span></div><br><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Dear Susan, Jim, Anna:<div><br></div><div>As you may know, artist Fariba Hajamadi currently has a marvelous solo show up at UCR Arts. The work uses digital photo manipulation of museum interiors to address issues of empire, collection, what might be called conquest decor, and the strange geopolitics of journalism. It also includes a wallpaper installation (wallpapers have been one expressive modality for Fariba) that has suddenly become more-than-topical inasmuch as its imagery derives from journalistic photos from post-Revolution Iran as well as from the Gulf War. (Fariba, who is based in LA, is Iranian-American, left Iran just before the Islamic Revolution but has recently traveled in country with her daughter.) Fariba, who trained with John Baldessari (and from whom he may have got the device of overpainting), has been called “one of the last artists of the Pictures Generation.” I think of this show as a very odd and subtly monumental meditation on the crumbling imperium. This is a lengthy way of saying: it needs a review. Fariba asked if I knew of any especially talented writers among the current cohort of UCR graduate students, and I said I’d ask you all. I can imagine a piece in <i>LARB</i>, or even <i>Hyperallergic.</i> If anyone comes to mind, do point them to the show! and I can put them in touch with the artist.</div><div><br></div><div>All best,</div><div><br></div><div>Judith<br><div>
<meta charset="UTF-8"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><br>Judith Rodenbeck<br>Professor, Media & Cultural Studies<br>University of California, Riverside<br><br><i>Mind is primarily a verb.</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- John Dewey<br><br><br><br></div></div>
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