RAG CHIN / MARYAM ABEDI

Opening
15 February 2019
Closing
26 February 2019
Hours of work
16 تا 21

As a medium, the canvas has the same function as a medium person in a spirit-summoning séance. He/she is a medium through which the spirits can communicate with us, in the same way that the canvas is a surface of representation which allows the physical presence of the image. For all that, in Maryam Abedi’s paintings, which draw on the possibilities of the canvas matter for image-making, the painting support is no longer a trivial, unseen object, but is highlighted as a subject of contemplation. Here, the canvas is not, as usual, a medium or facilitator, but is itself the subject matter of the painting. Such a treatment occurs in a process which turns the medium of the image into the image itself. It was a shift which led to the self-awareness of the painting in the course of Modern art; a move which sought to reduce the painting to its surface. In the present series, Maryam Abedi is influenced by this Modernist vision and does not attempt to conceal this. However, unlike the common impression, these paintings might not be categorized as abstract.

The artist’s act in this series recalls Penelope’s device in Odyssey’s tale. Penelope weaves a shroud and undoes it overnight to suspend answering to her suitors. In this series, the artist acts in reverse. She undoes (takes apart or ‘de-frames’ the canvas) and weaves them together again. This weaving process grants the canvas possibilities which could not have been realized in its conventional format. Any form of undoing and weaving suspends the conventional, established status.

And what is a painting? If not a suspension of the established status?

Amir Nasri

Meet the artist of this exhibition

Maryam Abedi

Art Works