Anahita Rezvani-Rad
11 Feb - 19 Mar 2011
ANAHITA REZVANI-RAD
Mind Your Step!
11 February – 19 March 2011
Lullin + Ferrari are pleased to present new works by the Iranian artist Anahita Rezvani-Rad (born 1978, in Tehran) in her second show in the gallery. In her exhibition the artist combines paintings realised during a residency in Brittany in Summer 2010 with works showing political turmoils in her home country. The title „Mind Your Step!“ gives the show its thematic direction: Be careful on what or where you step! This demand is obvious and even physically perceptible in the entrance room of the gallery: Here the artist has placed a large canvas-carpet with the title Dawn Chorus, on which little dead birds are depicted. The carpet is placed in such a way, that the visitors entering the gallery can‘t avoid standing on it. The artist likes the idea, that in the course of the exhibition the carpet will be covered with the traces of the visitors and that the public will make the effort not to step on the colourful birds. Beside this large work on the floor hangs a dark landscape painting depicting a group of trees and two mysterious female figures standing back to back, accentuated in the composition through a red line. It seems that the birds have vanished from this painting.
The residency of Anahita Rezvani-Rad in Brittany was subject to a very unusual condition. Violence, a very important subject matter in her oeuvre, was not allowed to be depicted. The artist bypassed this restriction following two strategies: On the one hand she relies on a hidden symbolism by painting fighting and dead birds symbolizing the troubles in Iran. On the other hand she gives the two landscapes, Bridge and The Pretender through her use of colour and composition an uncanny atmosphere. In the painting Bridge a rear-view-figure is standing on the embankment and guides the viewer into the painting. He looks over a river towards a landscape, which is crowned by a viaduct.
The landscape has been gradually built by Anahita Rezvani-Rad over several levels; a canoe designates the upper level of the river. Above the waters the artist has painted a wall and a wooden fence leading into a turquoise roof. The foreground is defined by a mesh of bronzen lines, the sky by misty clouds. Through her choice of colours and her decisions regarding the composition Anahita Rezvani-Rad creates a touching dreamlike landscape, which seems to refer to her own process of thinking. The composition of the painting The Pretender is determined by a road leading out of the painting. In a green field to the right of the road, not visible on first sight, lies a man in a stylesed posture. He seems to be dazzled by nature and to dissolve in the painted world. These two works painted in Brittany represent an introspection of the artist during her residency.
The large paintings Truck, Blue Sky and Dancers, realised in London before her stay in France, capture a different atmosphere. They are based on images from the internet depicting the troubles and conflicts in Iran. By using bronze colour, known from the painterly tradition of her homeland, Anahita Rezvani-Rad links these images of turmoils to the apparently contemplative landscapes created in Brittany. In both group of works the artist, – through the colour blurrings, the ornamental lines and the perspective –, manifests playfully her painterly skill and shows, that an important subject in her work is painting. Anahita Rezvani-Rad chooses her electronic source material very carefully but also intuitively; they represent an echo of her personal consternation and experience. In the series of works titled Mundane the artist reveals that the disturbances in Iran affect also the everyday life of individuals, and in the paintings Nature‘s Way 1 and 2 the artist shows the encounters between man and woman in times of political insecurity. In the paintings Green Fabric and Conversation she records the behaviour of groups in tumultuous circumstances.
In the third room of the gallery hangs a series of small panels titled Sabz. This series is the artist‘s immediate response to the so-called green revolution also named Sabz. The green revolution broke out in June 2009 after the dubious reelection of the Iranian president Ahmandinedschad. The manifestations disappeared as quickly as they had emerged.
The cinematographic sequence is framed by two representations of hands holding green ribbons. The multicoloured small panels show the everyday life of the protest: the threat, the interactions and the participation of all sections of the population – in which a high percentage of women was involved. Anahita Rezvani-Rad followed the events from London in a safe surrounding but was emotionally very involved, which mediated through images from the internet and the reports on television becomes apparent in this moving series. Beside this series hangs the painting It‘s a New Dawn.
It shows an impressive group of trees in the centre and indicates in the left middle plane through bright red lines and colours the start of a new day. In the foreground two birds are fighting. The painting tells us the following: A new day has begun but the militant state of affairs has not changed. A series of five small panels showing two fighting birds completes the exhibition by Anahita Rezvani-Rad. This series with the painting It‘s a New Dawn draws a bow to the birds on the carpet in the entrance room of the gallery.
Mind Your Step!
11 February – 19 March 2011
Lullin + Ferrari are pleased to present new works by the Iranian artist Anahita Rezvani-Rad (born 1978, in Tehran) in her second show in the gallery. In her exhibition the artist combines paintings realised during a residency in Brittany in Summer 2010 with works showing political turmoils in her home country. The title „Mind Your Step!“ gives the show its thematic direction: Be careful on what or where you step! This demand is obvious and even physically perceptible in the entrance room of the gallery: Here the artist has placed a large canvas-carpet with the title Dawn Chorus, on which little dead birds are depicted. The carpet is placed in such a way, that the visitors entering the gallery can‘t avoid standing on it. The artist likes the idea, that in the course of the exhibition the carpet will be covered with the traces of the visitors and that the public will make the effort not to step on the colourful birds. Beside this large work on the floor hangs a dark landscape painting depicting a group of trees and two mysterious female figures standing back to back, accentuated in the composition through a red line. It seems that the birds have vanished from this painting.
The residency of Anahita Rezvani-Rad in Brittany was subject to a very unusual condition. Violence, a very important subject matter in her oeuvre, was not allowed to be depicted. The artist bypassed this restriction following two strategies: On the one hand she relies on a hidden symbolism by painting fighting and dead birds symbolizing the troubles in Iran. On the other hand she gives the two landscapes, Bridge and The Pretender through her use of colour and composition an uncanny atmosphere. In the painting Bridge a rear-view-figure is standing on the embankment and guides the viewer into the painting. He looks over a river towards a landscape, which is crowned by a viaduct.
The landscape has been gradually built by Anahita Rezvani-Rad over several levels; a canoe designates the upper level of the river. Above the waters the artist has painted a wall and a wooden fence leading into a turquoise roof. The foreground is defined by a mesh of bronzen lines, the sky by misty clouds. Through her choice of colours and her decisions regarding the composition Anahita Rezvani-Rad creates a touching dreamlike landscape, which seems to refer to her own process of thinking. The composition of the painting The Pretender is determined by a road leading out of the painting. In a green field to the right of the road, not visible on first sight, lies a man in a stylesed posture. He seems to be dazzled by nature and to dissolve in the painted world. These two works painted in Brittany represent an introspection of the artist during her residency.
The large paintings Truck, Blue Sky and Dancers, realised in London before her stay in France, capture a different atmosphere. They are based on images from the internet depicting the troubles and conflicts in Iran. By using bronze colour, known from the painterly tradition of her homeland, Anahita Rezvani-Rad links these images of turmoils to the apparently contemplative landscapes created in Brittany. In both group of works the artist, – through the colour blurrings, the ornamental lines and the perspective –, manifests playfully her painterly skill and shows, that an important subject in her work is painting. Anahita Rezvani-Rad chooses her electronic source material very carefully but also intuitively; they represent an echo of her personal consternation and experience. In the series of works titled Mundane the artist reveals that the disturbances in Iran affect also the everyday life of individuals, and in the paintings Nature‘s Way 1 and 2 the artist shows the encounters between man and woman in times of political insecurity. In the paintings Green Fabric and Conversation she records the behaviour of groups in tumultuous circumstances.
In the third room of the gallery hangs a series of small panels titled Sabz. This series is the artist‘s immediate response to the so-called green revolution also named Sabz. The green revolution broke out in June 2009 after the dubious reelection of the Iranian president Ahmandinedschad. The manifestations disappeared as quickly as they had emerged.
The cinematographic sequence is framed by two representations of hands holding green ribbons. The multicoloured small panels show the everyday life of the protest: the threat, the interactions and the participation of all sections of the population – in which a high percentage of women was involved. Anahita Rezvani-Rad followed the events from London in a safe surrounding but was emotionally very involved, which mediated through images from the internet and the reports on television becomes apparent in this moving series. Beside this series hangs the painting It‘s a New Dawn.
It shows an impressive group of trees in the centre and indicates in the left middle plane through bright red lines and colours the start of a new day. In the foreground two birds are fighting. The painting tells us the following: A new day has begun but the militant state of affairs has not changed. A series of five small panels showing two fighting birds completes the exhibition by Anahita Rezvani-Rad. This series with the painting It‘s a New Dawn draws a bow to the birds on the carpet in the entrance room of the gallery.