Iman Djouini — The Entrepreneurial Artist
Iman Djouini received a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Art History from MICA. She is a multidisciplinary artist with her work ranging from printmaking to animation to public art and so on. When I attended her artist talk at UMBC near the end of October, I saw how she is an entrepreneur in many ways and how she utilizes the broad definition of entrepreneurship throughout her work. However, what really stood out to me was her work on the collaborative project “Light Elephant,” which was created for Baltimore’s Light City festival of Neighborhood Lights.
The time and effort that went into each stage of “Light Elephant” really highlights her leadership and collaborative abilities. While she nor Jonathan Taube — her partner during the project — created the physical 16-foot inflatable, they had to be very precise with the design that they provided for the construction of it. She had to put in tremendous effort to gather the resources, pitch the idea, and promote the project. However, the work did not end with the construction of the inflatable. For Djouini and Taube, “Light Elephant” further expanded the mold of what is considered art through their exploration of the idiom “the elephant in the room.” Their main interest was removing the elephant from that metaphorical room and moving it from place to place, exploring how the elephant interacted with its environment and how the citizens of Baltimore interacted with it.
Without the drive and ability to mobilize the assets for “Light Elephant,” the project would have never taken off the ground, let alone be so mobile itself. Hearing Djouini talk about her work with “Light Elephant” taught me about how important every stage of a project is and how much effort is put into seeing it through to the end. The main thing that I’m going to take away from this artistically and professionally is to not neglect any one stage of the project process. Each stage is vital and important to the overall success of a project and it is the duty of the artist to become an entrepreneur of their own and not let their projects die before they’ve even been realized.
