LONDON CRAFT WEEK
The exhibition “Imprints of Iran “showcases the works of three young Iranian artists, Bibi Manavi, Rana Khadem, and Navid Azimi Sajadi, whose contemporary interpretations are directly rooted to Iranian ancient crafts of Embroideries, Mirror Mosaics, Woodworks and Ceramics. Bibi Manavi produces renderings of cellular patterns. Compositions are then enlarged, recreated in mirror then carved into wood using traditional Iranian craft techniques specializing in mirror and woodwork. In addition, she presents a linear narrative of the evolution of one of the most intricate embroidered patterns in the world from Baluchistan. Rana Khadem mixed media piece with embroideries is inspired by the seafood-heavy diet of the people of the Persian Gulf, unsustainable because of the presence of heavy mercury in fish. She discovered the Golabatoun embroidery technique whose central practice is in the island of Hormozgan and used for centuries to decorate clothing and various objects. In Sigillum, Navid Azimi Sajadi creates a body of the work which consists of a group of glazed sgraffito stoneware ceramics together making up a constellation-like installation. In this imaginary journey, elements of the esotericism of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern culture merge and consolidate, showing a contrast and, at the same time, a harmonic fusion.
Dates: 9-13 May
Location: Cromwell Place, SW7 2JE, Wing Gallery
ARTIST TALK
Date and time of event: Saturday May 13th
3 pm
Booking for event: No booking is required
The event is free.
Venue address: 4 Cromwell Place, Wing Gallery Second floor
BIBI MANAVI
Bibi Manavi is a Paris-based multi-disciplinary artist. Her practice focuses on accessing memory through microscopic observation and archiving of disappearing flora by means of sculpture and photography. She received her BA in Fine arts in 2015 from Central Saint Martins in London and has exhibited her work throughout France, the U.K. and Italy. Manavi’s work investigates the role of memory through the magnifying glass of dendrochronology* in the time of ecological mutation: transformation of land, water diversion, deforestation. The sculptural panels draw from Iran’s Aineh-Kari* craft with biomorphic design at its core. Microscopic cellular compositions taken from specific tree samples are enlarged in varying scales, then recreated in mirror. Manavi views the mirror as a lens in which the interior and exterior dissolve into a liminal space. The reflections in her works juxtapose the pastness of the imbued memory with the presentness of its viewing. The photographic research insitu of the panels captures the transformation of actual space into perpetual field mechanisms. Patterns form and dissolve, through a whirlwind of light and reflections, underlying a festival of cellular connections.
NAVID AZIMI SAJADI
Navid Azimi Sajadi was born in Tehran, Iran 1982. He gained a bachelor of art in painting from Tehran Art and Architecture University in 2005. The same year he moved to Rome. In Italy he graduated from Accademia di Belli Arti di Roma, in 2009. He was awarded the Amedeo Modigliani Foundation prize in 2009. He gained his Master of Fine Art in Multi Media Sculpture in 2013 from Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, and in the same year He has been invited to the 9th Shanghai Biennale. Navid’s works reviews his experience in-between two cultures, dealing with cross-cultural codes. He has developed an esoteric language of signs and symbols from multiple mythologies and histories. He tries to manipulate and play constantly at what images, the forms, and the memories mean and how they work, creating a metaphorical ambient where viewers can attach a wide array of significances to indicators of time and spaces. in a simple description a visual glimpse of a crossroad where present day events meet history and ancient cults. His installations is based on a reading of “ambivalence” that has been transformed to become a shape that can be demystified only by taking into account one’s presuppositions —in other words, the viewer is to “read into” the work, rather than extract meaning from it in an objective manner. Each individual element is laden with meaning, coalescing to represent today’s society as he perceives it. His reading of “ambivalence” does not merely reflect a psychological state, but aims to be an aggregation of all possible states. Azimi’s work forms part of the permanet collections of institutions that include Getty center collection, LA, USA; EMAAR Collection (Foundry), Dubai, UAE; Bilotti Museum of Contemporary Art, Rende, Italy; Cosenza Museum of Contemporary Art, Cosenza; AGI Verona; Hitay Holding collection, Istanbul; Morhaim Collaction, Istanbul; Khadjavi collection, NY; BIC Lazio, Rome; Namazi collection, Tehran; BUHL and Amin, NY; he Lives and works between Rome and Tehran.
RANA KHADEM
Rana Khadem is a creative and passionate Iranian contemporary artist and designer with 20+ years of experience designing a wide range of handmade home goods such as embroidered cushion covers, gold coated ashtrays, China paintings, modern tablewares, holiday decorative objects as well as glass works, mirrors, headboard pieces, and carpets. She has two showrooms: one in Iran, and the other in Nice, France. Her Golabatoun collection and home interior work is currently being sold at one of the most famous hotels in Nice called Negresco. She has been selling her home decorative pieces in Concept stores in Berlin, London, Paris and Vancouver.