|
Mohammad
Eskandari
Simorgh
Recites
Solo
Exhibition
of
Mohammad
Eskandari
Opening
on
29th
May
2015
There
is a
simultaneous
sense
of
futurity
and
historicity
in
the
five
large
canvas
paintings,
and
one
video
work,
by
artist
Mohammad
Eskandari.
His
superb
mastery
over
the
brush
comes
from
having
been
born
into
an
artistic
family
as
well
as a
successful
artistic
education
and
career.
Yet,
these
images
are
not
merely
an
outcome
of
skill
and
upbringing.
Through
that
inheritance,
these
works
convey
a
deep
insight
into
Iranian
history,
Iranian
symbolism,
Iranian
modernity,
Iranian
wealth,
and
Iranian
pain.
On
these
canvases,
Eskandari
embraces
the
Qajar
and
Pahlavi pardeh
khani tradition.
An
old
Iranian
artistic
method,
that
I
would
trace
even
further
back
to
Sassanian
rock-cuts,
portable
paintings
on
large
canvases
(pardeh)
used
to
illustrate
the
Battle
of
Karbala,
Koranic
stories,
and
the
epic
of
theShahnameh.
Reviving
the
large-scale
technique,
the
artist
invokes
other
forms
of
historical
accounts
that
speak
so
clearly
about
a
tentative
future.
Thus,
Eskandari
selects
fragments
of
rich
architectural
and
geographic
past:
a
gate,
an
Eyvan,
a
summit,
and
a
forest
collide
into
a
future
shaped
by
human
agency
that
remains
unresolved.
Historical
monuments,
national
symbols,
fragments
of
natural
landscape,
and
separate
figures
all
hover
on
the
painterly
surface
–
somehow
in a
state
of
constant
flux,
a
state
of
abstraction
and
foolishness
that
makes
total
sense.
The
painter
speaks
to
his
audience.
The
painter
invites
his
viewer
to
inhabit
a
space
of
ambivalence
and
absurdity…a
place
that
goes
somewhere
but
that
is
certainly
irresolute...
Excerpt
from
text
by
Talinn
Grigor
for
catalogue
of
exhibition
Talinn
Grigor
(Ph.D.,
MIT)
author
of
the
book
“Contemporary
Iranian
Art:
From
The
Street
To
Studio”,
is
an
Associate
Professor
of
modern
and
contemporary
architecture
in
the
Department
of
Fine
Arts
at
Brandeis
University,
Boston.
Her
research
concentrates
on
the
cross-pollination
of
architecture
and
(post)colonial
politics,
focused
on
Iran
and
India.
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