Press Release
O Gallery is pleased to present “Event Horizon,” a selection of drawings and paintings by Elham Yazdanian (b. 1979, Tehran).
Owing to Yazdanian’s earlier studies in interior design, her work has an architecture-like structure, while still possessing a poetic sense. Arches are a token of Iranian and Eastern architecture but the artist’s style is comparable to that of Western and European art. The artist’s choice of pallet is limited and the created spaces are characteristically dark with unknown sources of light. The contrast between light and dark is the basis of Yazdanian’s work; however darkness seems to play a more significant role. The mystery created by this contrast is very well expressed in this saying by Luis Kahn, an American architect and philosopher: “Even a space intended to be dark should have just enough light from some mysterious opening to tell us how dark it really is.”
There are certain textures in Yazdanian’s work that are consciously destroyed. The remaining trace of this approach of construction and deconstruction is suggestive of her search and exploration to achieve the current status. The columns between two walls, the bar between two wheels, the rows of bricks and overall, line stand for a distance that is sometimes highlighted by the use of the color gold.
Though hints of human presence can be followed in her hallways, rooms and staircases, they are nonexistent. Wheel is a repeated element in her work, and its symbolic meaning of movement and life contradicts the present idle and silent atmosphere created. Regardless, corridors and passages tempt the viewer to want to roam and understand these places.
The works on display are full of oppositions. Opposition of light and dark, east and west, construction and destruction, presence and absence, consciousness and unconsciousness, movement and idleness define the characteristic quality of these works.
Selected Works
