Arash Mirhadi (IRN) Anastomosis [ a connection or opening between two things that are normally diverging or branching ] 5/2-7/3 2021

Curator: Bahareh Mirhadi

The branch opens with a split - with distance as a forced method. By his sister, a brotherhood, guiding and absorbing, the wicker became permeable. With sugar dissolved in tea (the organism’s blood flow), a stethoscope. You, who tattooed your thumbprint on my hand? You, that knows the outer walls of my heart? You, that did not stay. A meetable existence.

“The things I draw usually doesn’t resemble reality, but there are some indications of reality in them. Just like a dream — when I wake up I don’t remember much, only a few indications remain”, Arash Mirhadi says. Trees, hearts, fishing nets and spreading fingers. Finally: ”contact re-established”. They put their fingerprints all over the city. Shipping companies? Not possible. Visa? Rejected. My sister, who has lived in Sweden for more than 10 years: we find ways. My brother: ”I decorate, I seek dialogue in the traces you leave behind”. Images with distance, branches, scratching sounds and heart murmur. Traces in a time of distance.

Arash Mirhadi (IRN), born in 1981 in Shiraz, Iran, works mainly with painting and graphic design but also with photography, illustration and print. He received his bachelor degree in handicraft from Isfahan University of Art in 2004, moved to Tehran in 2008 and gained his master of painting from Islamic Azad University of Tehran. He works primarily in painting and graphic design but is also active in photography and illustration and printmaking. In 2018, he and his sister Bahareh Mirhadi received a residency at UNICORN - Artists in Solidarity. The artwork that they had planned to work with on site in Malmö raised questions about cooperation, family memories, control and the differences that distance generate. When Arash’s visa application, and later appeal, were rejected, the distance became a method that was forced upon them. Now they meet again – again at a distance, in an era of distancing. Where the absence of the artist, a sibling, extorts something else: new collaborations, branches, frustration.

Organisms, trees. Even ”Days, animals” (Torkel Rasmusson, 1983). ”They are upside down to remind me that this is not reality”, Arash Mirhadi writes about a series of photographs posted on Instagram, of buildings, chandeliers, pots and… trees. Tree crowns, foliage, exposed roots. Anastomosis.

And then the heart suite, a mycelium or an atlas of the creator’s courier. Less upside down and more of a pulsating back and forth, like a pat on the back in my sleep: ”when I wake up I don’t remember”… that you “take care of yourself”.

Two video works halt curled shadows, but then the animal appears – and the day, the leaf through the calendar, with anticipation. The hand that crowns, applies, altered reading direction: about “design and color in Islamic architecture” (light, color, water).

http://arashmirhadi.com/
https://www.instagram.com/arashmirhadinejad/


Text: Fredrik Stahlénius.


Live Streaming 26 February 18:00


IMPORTANT:
Due to the covid-19 pandemic we have changed our opening hours. We regret to inform you that in compliance with current recommendations there will be no formal opening of this exhibition. You are welcome to visit us and to view the exhibition during opening hours, though only four visitors are permitted enter at a time. Please remember to keep distance from each other, wash your hands, follow all current safety recommendations and to stay home if you are feeling the slightest onset of illness. A mask can be provided to those who request one.

Our new opening hours are as follows:
Fridays and Thursdays: 15:00-19:00
Saturdays and Sundays: 13:00-17:00




Photo: Maria Norrman