New Players, New Roles. Iranian artists in UK.

About

In this group show the works elicit alternatives to traditional perceptions by presenting a sceptical prism through which to view the narrowness of binary thinking. Each piece seeks truth across a designated divide, for example between the personal and the global, who we are and who we might be or between here and another place. Yet binary awareness, arguably a social state we are universally born into, causes a very necessary tension in our lives ' a vicissitude which moves us to seek to define who we are, whether as individuals or as a society. These artists, by exploring the auto-didactic journey towards self-fulfilment within and without oneself, contribute to a universal becoming in which we all play a part.

The exhibition title stems from John Berger's statement in Ways of Seeing that Rembrandt's style, in a self-portrait of himself and his new wife 'is no more than the style of a new performer playing a traditional role' and relates to the cataclysms around Iranian art viewed abroad. For too long ideas of Iran and the diaspora have been tainted by pre-conceived assumptions fed by media. A common dialectic for example is: are other countries able to fully appreciate that Iranian art can make religious references in a secular, merely cultural context? Another is, does a desire for freedom from tradition or religion in Iran and the region necessarily mean the alternative is Western ideology?

With this in mind, we examine what Iranian artists in Britain are making today in an exhibition that seeks to pursue and manage perceptions ' of our own as we seek answers, and of those who behold us as we seek.
About the artists:

Koushna Navabi
Born in Iran, working in London Navabi is a mixed media artist using a variety of fascinating mediums. She has exhibited widely in UK and internationally in group and solo shows. Her work explores the complex relationships between east and west, and corporeal politics.
Nooshin Farhid
Born in Iran, Farhid lives and works in London from where she has shown widely both nationally and internationally. Primarily concerned with moving image in the form of single screen works, installations, interventions and animation she is also working to great impact with still photography and text.
Alinah Azadeh
Born In Iran, a UK-based artist working across disciplines and contexts. She uses live encounters, sculpture, digital data, textile and text to create spaces for human exchange and personal self-reflection in response to themes of human experience. Large scale public commissions include The Bibliomancer's Dream (2009, Southbank Centre), The Gifts(2010, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery), Portraits of the Unseen(2010 The National Portrait Gallery) London. Current project: Burning the Books a live encounter work collaborating with debtors and creditors everywhere. The Gifts will show at The Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, China, Autumn 2013.
Neda Dana-Haeri
Born in Iran and working in London, Dana-Haeri has been a curator and fine artist for over a decade. Having graduated under Bob and Roberta Smith she has taken part in many group shows. Dana-Haeri creates fine, abstract print and painted canvas works that look at contemporary concerns from a deeply philosophical and poetic angle.
Andrew Khosravani
Born in London where he still lives Khosravani is an illustrator, animator and designer. A young and recent art graduate he creates involved, imposing prints in coloured pencil and mixed material with a tendency to abstraction of subject matter presented as recognisable forms.
Maral Pourkazemi
Born in Germany, Pourkazemi is based in London where she creates works of design that demonstrate an intricate thought process around human values. We show her large panels on the censorship of the Iranian internet that feature intriguing designs based on the traditional geometry found in Persian carpets.

About the curator:

Fari Bradley is an Iranian arts reviewers, writer and sound artist based in London. Previous curation include Frieze art fair London (video work), Art Dubai Projects (sound work) and curation for Corsica Studios (fine art). Art showcases and review include The Centre for Possible Studies (Serpentine Gallery), Nour Festival, BBC3, BBCR4 and BBC London. Bradley runs the London-based arts and media consultancy Six Pillars, which specialises in the Middle East.

Talks, performance, screenings 6.30pm onwards

Thurs June 6th

Live drawing by Andrew Khosravani, live electronics, vocals and sampling with Parstronix

Sat June 8

Artist Alinah Azadeh screening and Q&A, plus designer Maral Pourkazemi's participatory lecture on information design and visual narratives and a short screening

Sat June 15th

Panel: 'The Politics of Representation: the thin veil of dissemblance and the role of the viewer' Artists, curators and reviewers in discussion, with Q&A
Supported by Small Media Foundation http://smallmediafoundation.com/

Produced by Six Pillars www.sixpillars.org