About Zangar
From 2008 to 2013, Moeineddin Shashaei spent his undergrad years at the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran. While studying architecture, he was lucky to mingle with many students across different disciplines. He was looking to design forms and create events around the human body in a more intimate scale, so he decided to learn jewelry.
Moein learned foundations of metalworking at studio of Naser Giv Ghasab, a contemporary artist and old-timey jeweler based in colorful midtown Tehran. The expressive works Moein made early on, secured him a spot in a masterclass by legendary sculptor Parviz Tanavoli, exploring the idea of jewelry as sculpture.
Moein was emerging as a jeweler in Tehran but in order to further diversify the media of his artmaking he moved to New York for grad school. In 2016 he received his MFA in communication design and graduated with outstanding merit from Pratt Institute. In 2017 he was an Emerging Artist Fellow at Socrates Sculpture Park.
Over the Covid-19 pandemic, Moein got the chance to hone his old skills, revisit serenity in metalwork and bring in more of his passion for design, under one product — ZANGAR (pronounced /zang'aar/ archaic Farsi for RUST.)
Zangar acknowledges that every piece of jewelry is a mix of elements of nature, developed in the skin of the Earth, extracted and mediated into a piece of art — a noble human labor spent on precious earthy material, shared with a resonating audience.
Zangar recognizes the cost of human use of material for nature. We try to do the least costly thing at every decision-making in the process of sourcing the material, making the artwork, and dealing with the waste.
Zangar believes in the connecting power of wearable art and meaningful sensory experience for everyday human users more than the market value of the precious metal that fluctuates daily.
Zangar regards human accessories as vehicles of aesthetic experience, designed for a long lasting series of installations on human body to resonate beauty for feeling good on the face of Earth.
Zangar design is tied to memories triggered by the flowing-around of information in different languages and forms. Our production involves tools, knowledge and raw material, sourced locally and from all over the map, for a piece of art to come together, made in the land of the Lenape, Brooklyn, New York.
