A Season of Work at Dastan’s Basement, Tehran
With the outbreak of Covid-19 and cancellation of art fairs from Dubai to Hong Kong, many gallerists realised that the world wide web and social media platforms could become a novel form of exhibition display to a much large audience around the globe. Dastan’s Basement, a commercial art gallery based out of Iran’s capital produced a series of high definition immersive virtual exhibitions which are available through their IGTV channel.
Fereydoun Ave, who received his education in applied arts of theatre from Arizona State University is a prolific figure who has been active in Iranian Contemporary Art for more than five decades. He has contributed to a myriad of different fields of artistic and cultural practice including theatre (be it as theatre, set or costume designer), fine arts, graphic design and interior design-- he is also a curator and an avid collector. The exhibition A Season of Work is the title given to two different sub-exhibitions, or seasons, and the subsequent titles themselves refer to the concept of death and rebirth. The Bitterness of Old Age and Decoration for the Narrow Dark Corridors are composed of a combination of mixed media works on paper, canvas, and 3D prints. According to the exhibition press release “This inclusive exhibition follows Fereydoun Ave's stream of consciousness, in different locations from summer 2019 to autumn 2019 with observations and impressions by Sohrab Mahdavi. A selection of works from “The Bitterness of Old Age” was previously presented in Condo Unit Athens 2019 at The Breeder (Athens, Greece). The background music to the online digital room has been chosen by Fereydoun Ave.” The two sub-exhibitions that accompany A Season of Work were produced simultaneously in 2019 at the artist’s residence in Syros and Paris.
Mr. Ave who was sent to London for schooling at the tender age of eight after the death of his father, lived there until he was 18 years old. Thereafter he migrated to Arizona and subsequently New York. He was a pupil of Cy Twombly. The two soon became close friends and spent a lot of their time together, including in Greece at Ave’s home on the island of Syros. Cy Twombly has no doubt had an important effect on Ave’s life and if not all, most of his artworks are inspired by Twombly. Ave moved to his native Iran in 1970. Iran in the 70s was an oil rich country, whose modernisation was forging ahead during the White Revolution. The White Revolution was an all-inclusive initiative by the government to modernise all of Iran and it of course applied to culture and fine arts as well. In Iran Ave became involved in “Kar-ga-he Na-ma-ye-sh”, a national theatre organisation where he met Bijan Saffari, who sadly passed away in the summer of 2019 in Paris. At the time of his arrival back to Iran, Shiraz Arts Festival was rapidly becoming an important annual event for theatre production by artists from middle and far Asia and Africa, Europe, Eastern Germany and the US. The Islamic government however changed the artistic practice in Iran following the 1979 revolution. The eight-year war between Iran and Iraq which started in 1981 created further economic damage to the commercial vitality of the Iranian art market.
Fereydoun Ave, Untitled, mixed media on canvas, 2008.
As its title suggests, The Bitterness of Old Age refers to aging, and given Ave’s own age it may be the reflection of the artist on his entire artistic career. The artworks in this exhibition carry biographical symbols for the artist, such as Syros, a reference to the Greek island in the Aegean Sea where he spent time creating the artworks displayed in the exhibition. The elements in the artworks for The Bitterness of Old Age are also references to the artist’s entire visual art career. The flowers and pedals in most works refer to his Bouquet exhibition which included his famous Lal Dahlia that Ave produced following the death of his mother. The flower as a decorative element is also repeated in Ave’s other series of Rostam In Later Summer, 1999. Ave’s take on the legend of Rostam and Sohrab is perhaps the moment of modernisation of the historically important Shahnameh and its larger context about the debates around the issue of Iranian identity. In a series of collages in Rostam at the End of Summer, Ave also raises questions around the issues of sexuality and the relation of the flower which is typically considered female in matter and form with the muscular body of the male wrestler. It is important to note that wrestling is the national sport of Iran and it is often connotated with conservatism. Ave seems to be utilising the sport in order to a) study the male body and play on issues of voyeurism and homosexuality and/or b) to point to material scarcity in public or otherwise legal image economy under Islamic censorship which points to censorship and is much more political in turn.
Fereydoun Ave, Rostam in Late Summer, mixed media and collage on paper, 2000.
The depiction of the flower in the series The Bitterness of Old Age; however, are not like the red dahlias or the blossoms as those in the Bouquet and Rostam In Late Summer series; they are rather aged, fragile and often broken. The stem of the flower is often depicted without its bulb which may further point to seasons of life, birth, aging and death. The second chapter to A Season of Work, is Decoration for the Narrow Dark Corridors. According to Ave himself, this exhibition is a complete decorative response to the first exhibition, The Bitterness of Old Age.
Fereydoun Ave, Untitled, 2019.
Decoration for the Narrow Dark Corridors and the artist’s statement suggests the prevalence of theatrical set and stage design in the creative psyche of Fereydoun Ave. This second sub-exhibition is shown in a darkened virtually realized space of Dastan’s Basement. Unlike the first exhibition, no music accompanies this exhibition which may hint to the notion of nothingness and death. The black colour of the frames which complement the foreground of the artist’s works in this series may refer to the symbolic meaning of the colour black in traditional mourning ceremonies of Roman Catholics which tipped over to Iran’s religious and social mourning processions during the modernisation of the country during the reign of the second Pahlavi monarch. Muslims around the world generally wear white to funeral ceremonies, this is exempt from Shia societies, the biggest of which is Iran.
The notion of rebirth is also conveyed through the depiction of flowers. Unlike the flowers in The Bitterness of Old Age, those depicted here are colourful and robust. The flowers are often placed on geometrically precise rectangles and squares which are decorated with golden elements, resembling those used in furniture design of the Imperialist period especially in France. The geometric lines on the tableaux may also refer to those visible in studies and drawings of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian who passed away in Iran within two weeks of Saffari’s death in Paris. The abstracted form of Persian motifs resemble those used in Monir’s work and perhaps refer to the traditional Persian practice of miniature.
Fereydoun Ave, Untitled, 2019.
A Season of Work draws parallels with Ave’s own biography and place in the contemporary art scene of Iran. It draws on from elements of Ave’s previous artworks and his relationship with his friend and mentor Cy Twombly. It points to the seasons of Ave’s artistic career and the artist’s fascination with theatre set and stage design.
All imagery courtesy of the artist and Dastan Gallery. Thank you.
Further reading:
Dastan Basement, “A Season of Work” Press Release, Dastan Basement, Tehran, 2020.
BBC, A Conversation with Fereydoun Ave, BBCPersian, London, 2019.
Vali Mahlouji, “From Radical to Radial: Perespective on the Festival of Arts, Shiraz- Persopolis”. Guggenheim, New York, 2017.
Saman Tehrani,
Deputy Creative Director, MADE IN BED