Zip over to Pippy Houldsworth Gallery this November to see the first UK solo exhibition by LA-based Iranian artist Nasim Hantehzadeh. Inspired by everything from Palaeolithic cave paintings and indigenous art from Mexico to Islamic architecture and ancient Persian rug patterns, Hantehzadeh creates deeply personal works that reflect their cultural duality and explore personal and collective memory.
They also addresse themes of identity, personhood, sexuality and race, evoking a world in which categories are deliberately in flux and undefined. In At the End of the Day (2022), for instance, the embellished orifices and sexual organs are transfigured from the corporeal to the otherworldly. The gate is open, meanwhile, is a meditation on vulnerability and openness in the face of the country’s extreme laws against LGBT people.
By dismantling preconceptions of a pre-modern Islamic gender system, Hantehzadeh fortifies their stance on Iranian feminism and the powerful role it plays in their country’s culture wars. Considering the current political situation, this show couldn’t be more apt.
They also addresse themes of identity, personhood, sexuality and race, evoking a world in which categories are deliberately in flux and undefined. In At the End of the Day (2022), for instance, the embellished orifices and sexual organs are transfigured from the corporeal to the otherworldly. The gate is open, meanwhile, is a meditation on vulnerability and openness in the face of the country’s extreme laws against LGBT people.
By dismantling preconceptions of a pre-modern Islamic gender system, Hantehzadeh fortifies their stance on Iranian feminism and the powerful role it plays in their country’s culture wars. Considering the current political situation, this show couldn’t be more apt.
