We are very excited to have the opportunity to work with Iranian-born, London-based artist Shirazeh Houshiary to present her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. Opening this fall at L.A. Louver, the exhibition will include new sculpture “String Quintet,” as well as three paintings.
WHITEWALL: Your paintings often have a sense of beyondness, as if one is looking beyond a fishing-net and into the sea or through the clouds towards the sky, conjuring a dreamlike, meditative state. What was the catalyst for you wanting to create this sensation in your paintings?
SHIRAZEH HOUSHIARY: I’m fascinated by the veil. The veil is very often gauzy or diaphanous. Sometimes it’s transparent and sometimes it’s opaque. Because I see the world as a veil, [I think that] the world itself is veiled from us and our eyes are the opening to the interior. All our senses are like photos between the interior and the exterior, and the veil is our biological existence or one could say that the veil is flesh. To understand the nature of life, we need to go through the veil so the veil needs to be torn. In a way, I always make a puncture or a cut to the veil, to reveal what is beyond. - Whitewall Daily, July 31, 2012
To read the entire interview, please click here.
Shirazeh Houshiary: String Quintet opens on Thursday, September 6, 2012, and will be on view through October 6, 2012. Stay tuned for more news and updates!
Image: Shirazeh Houshiary, Sight, 2011, white and red pencil and white acquacryl on black aquacryl on canvas and aluminum, 27.56 x 27.56 in. (70 x 70 cm)