“Piecing Together” proceeds from various experiences of setting things side by side: arrays of canvas pieces; the tradition of figurative and abstract painting; “feminine: and “masculine” artistic conventions; painting, sculpture, and installation art; and collage and assemblage.

Here the boundaries between categories of artistic conventions are blurred and discarded as a new approach emerges which is simultaneously modest and assertive. It evokes patchworks and suzanis on the one hand, and Baroque tones and hues on the other, thereby conjuring up humble needlework and grand historical art at the same time. All these can be placed together and produce novel patterns and significances by means of a method that seeks to provide ample opportunities to continue the ancient painting tradition through a reunion with another age-old tradition: sewing and its full internal vigor.

Helia Darabi