Olga Korper Gallery is proud to present Once upon a Time in Tehran, the inaugural exhibition of recent work by artist Shabnam K. Ghazi. The show will be on view from Saturday September 8th until October 6th with a formal opening on Saturday September 8th 2-5pm, the artist will be in attendance.
Shabnam was born and raised in Tehran, where she was trained as an artist and exhibited extensively with Iranian galleries and museums. She currently lives and works in Toronto, and her most recent series explores the boundaries of time and place, of immigration, language, and memory all through textile. Shabnam uses an Iranian writing technique, the Siyah Mashq method or “Black Practice”, which involves a stream-of-consciousness style of writing that goes in multiple directions across a page until words are obscured by the other words inked over top of them.
In her Black Practice, Shabnam calls to mind distant memories of her life in Tehran and through writing reveals details of moments that she believed were long forgotten. These densely covered pages are then screen-printed onto Japanese paper and shredded, becoming long written ribbons which are transformed into balls of delicate yarn or woven back together again into wall-hangings, carpets, objects which typically adorn a home and bring comfort and familiarity. Though the memories themselves are obscured and distorted, the fragments of language are still recognizable, infusing the new creation with a story now preserved in time the way a knot in a wood table is a permanent reminder of the tree that once grew.
“Our memories are a very refined and processed version of our thoughts toward specific events, with much of the information reduced to an absolute abstraction or fragment of the recollection. We are usually unable to recall the more crucial elements that are key to the memory puzzle, forcing us to reach for logic through a maze of disconnected segments…For me, the creative process of the installations is a way of retaining my strongest recollections that have stayed with me through the years, while merging them into physical objects that are relevant to Persian culture and my personal history.” – Shabnam K. Ghazi
Opening Reception
September 8, 2018 2:00 pm – 5:00 pmArtist Links
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Included Artworks
artwork detail
“Wherever I go, The sky is mine”, 2018
Shabnam K. Ghaziacrylic on panel, japanese tissue, screen print 60” x 60”
From one part of the city to the other part, 2018
Shabnam K. Ghazijapanese tissue, screen print 36” x 36”
It usually took me 3 hours to get there, 2018
Shabnam K. Ghazijapanese tissue, screen print 22” x 22”
The string of thoughts 1, 2016
Shabnam K. Ghazijapanese tissue, screen print, wooden spool 2.75” x 50” x 2”
The string of thoughts 2, 2016
Shabnam K. Ghazijapanese tissue, screen print, wooden spool 2.75” x 50” x 2”
The string of thoughts 3, 2016
Shabnam K. Ghazijapanese tissue, screen print, wooden spool 2.75” x 50” x 2”
The string of thoughts 4, 2016
Shabnam K. Ghazijapanese tissue, screen print, wooden spool 2.75” x 50” x 2”
