Caryatid II 2019
Solo exhibition: Cut From The Same Cloth (yekparche), O Gallery, Tehran, Iran, 2020
plaster and polyurethane
Dimensions: 15 x 44 x 15 cm
Cut from the Same Cloth makes use of letters, words, patterns and decorative elements to question the juxtaposition of structure and ornament. Rather than separating one from the other, the show fuses ornament and structure and highlights their interdependence. High-rise-like sculptures such as “Khataee” and “Caryatid II” transform decorative floral patterns usually found in carpets and architectural moldings into structure itself. Elsewhere the artist merges syllables and words with objects and surfaces into artworks that can only be deciphered if their constituent parts are regarded as a unified whole, rather than separately as structure and ornament. Both “This Ornamentation Is What This [wall] Is Built For” as well as “tex[tiles]” interrupt the act of reading and invent a language that integrates letters with objects and surfaces to combine them into new types of signifiers. The messages that thus transpire speak of the synergy between the human urges to structure and to embellish our environment and of the unique capacity of textiles to accommodate both these urges.