The Bright Side Of Revenge

Delgosha gallery is pleased to announce the “bright side of revenge” a group show of works by Hayde Ayazi, Rasoul Ashtary, Poorang Pirataei, Soorena Petgar, Hadi Fallah pisheh, Amir Kamand, Shabahang Tayyari and Soheil Mokhtar and a story by Mohamad  Shabaani nejad. The show is curated by Shabahang Tayyari and it will be on view from September 14th in Delgosha gallery.

 “The bright side of revenge” is about an artist who still wants to rebel and keep this primary characteristic of art alive. He/she seeks a wild justice and wants to define it by him/herself. Although the world we live in leaves him/her passionless. When the works start to disobey and have sarcastic tone, a sense of resistance begin to slowly show through them and consequently the anger, protest, fear, loss and lyricism become a part of them. The consequences are undeniable and the artist starts an imaginary fight in his mind. “The bright side of revenge” conveys the lack of radical and independent artist. The policy makers of the contemporary art world turn the most radical and critical form of art into a novel decoration or just ignore it all together and keep on their own way. They quote the artist statement as a sympathetic listener or make a solitary and oppressed figure out of him/her.

 The same pattern is repeated in contemporary middle eastern art scene and owing to a lack of experience and its complex nature it has become more problematic. When artists take their own path and no system or structure recognizes their right, the story of revenge begins. This uncertain atmosphere creates a spiritless radicalism from single voices of protest that is not as blood-stirring as one would imagine a rebellion to be. It mostly resembles a couch potato revolution or a teenager lost in video games. The lack of a single core in these rebellions is the chaos of our time.  

 The main issue is finding a way to connect to this universal show without fully giving up to all its aspects. The irregular and tribal moves can more than ever act as the running engine for the art in Iran. The substansiveness of this mechanism for creating an artwork can change the stereotypical experience of the artist and its symbolic place into a more independent existence. expanding himself in an environment in which the in flux and unconventional nature is the trademark of an artist. The bright side of revenge -in dialogue with its darker side- is traced with shadows left behind by the constant flux of the artist.

Soorena Petgar pictures an artist who wants to take his entire hometown with him when he leaves his country and this pursuit is an act of revenge on himself. His other piece resembles a children’s coloring book that the artist has carefully colored between the lines he has drawn to begin with. The seemingly childish atmosphere of the painting leaves us with a peculiar feeling lurking behind it. Amir Kamand has four wooden samurai sculptures, each standing with a sword in their hands. His sculptures along with Haydeh Ayazi’s paintings are inspired by unaffected experiences that resist the system. Instinct and emotions are inseparable parts of Soheil Mokhtar’s paintings. He is an experimental painter that has three paintings of body fragments in this exhibition. His red portrait resembles a cinematic image of a woman who has covered her face with veil in mourning to hide the sadness of her face and the lust for revenge. The drawings/paintings of Poorang Pirataei are straightforward and start an outright monologue with the viewer. The cut out letters from the newspaper in Shabahang Tayyari’s work eludes the character of the artist. A dark humor of his own that speaks of an almost inhumane bargain that loses its danger in the form of art. “I WiLL LET Your SON GO iF You BRIng ME a BRuSh.” In a picture by Hadi Fallahpisheh we see a young girl standing next to a motorcycle. The placing of these two elements together bring to mind the violence in the society which is a recurring theme in his other piece in the show.  Rasoul ashtary’s photograph depicts twin brothers with fit bodies who have dressed up in a formal silver suite. Acting tough, they mostly resemble Italian gangsters who want to play an important role in their gang. The nightmarish love story of Mohammad Shabaninejad is a completion to the collection of these works that take vengeance to another “imaginary” level.