“Arimas” Featuring Samira Hodaei and Samira Alikhanzadeh: Iranian Artists Exhibit in Switzerland
“Arimas”, a group exhibition with works by Iranian artists, Samira Hodaei and Samira Alikhanzadeh, will be on display at Ab Gallery Lucerne-‐Emmenbrücke.
Carrying the same first name and both living in Tehran, these two artists deal with the role of women in society in both historical and contemporary times. Although they have each developed very special techniques, their common trait is the adaptation of found images that are entwined with manual work, giving the works a haptical character.In her newest series “Dancing the Sharp Edge”, Samira Hodaei shows pictures of women in different postures, dancing, in twisted positions, equipped with knives.
Inspired by paintings of the Qajar Dynasty that are known for their very strong coloring and intense texture on canvas, she created her own visual world–one that emerges from the mixture of a traditional approach and the digital adaptation.
In her pictures Hodaei takes over the ornamentation of the Qajar pictures and transfers the fine texture of the points on the canvas in one, using her own paint technique with glass color. The tiny rises produce together with the substance of the material, a tangible (as well as three dimensional) intensity that is experienced even more by the overlapping colors and layers.
Hodaei speaks about danger which is manifested in the knife of the subject. Above, right, the dancer stands for the women and the knife for the danger, an omnipresent danger that is able to turn itself against its owner, at any time.
Combining little mirror fragments with found portraits Samira Alikhanzadeh questions our perception of time, of the past, the future and the present.
Looking into the little mirrors the viewer might meet his own gaze. In this way the viewer not only becomes a part of the artwork but of the past, the world which is depicted in Alikhanzadeh’s works. By immersing in the past for a little moment impermanence becomes visible which is also increased by the quantity of the depicted. By visualizing the past she challenges the present.
The exhibition runs through March 10th 2012.
*In addition, the exhibition “Simply Words?” featuring the work of Farideh Lashai will be shown at Ab Gallery Lucerne, while the exhibition “Disturbance and Contemplation” featuring works by Baktash Sarang at AB Gallery Zurich.
