Exploring the inside of an artists’ studio - in which thoughts, dreams and schemes tangle up into the elusive process of creation - offers a kaleidoscopic insight into the work of the artist, when opened up for inspection. Through the individual clues found in the colliding chaos, industry and creativity these spaces which artists reach beyond their consciousness and into the intangible realm of ideas.
Naturally, these mysterious spaces have in turn, inspired self-reflexive art that documents the artist’s creative sanctum, musing over the elusive confluence of factors fundamentally fuelling creativity. Over 100 years ago, London’s Strand magazine described such art as describing ‘the sacred place... a laboratory in which ideas are melted down and boiled up and turned out on canvas by magic.’
In an installation that both continues this tradition of exploring this artistic process and simultaneously makes a series of dramatic and confrontational arguments, Dubai’s Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde presents Iranian-born brothers Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh at Art Berlin Contemporary, with a new ‘non-collaborative collaboration’, ‘XXXXXXXX’, a full-scale facsimile of their shared Dubai studio space. Meticulously recreated, the installation reflects the distinct techniques and processes of the two artists within the context of their workspace, featuring a series of collaborative collages and sculpture as well as the typical detritus of a studio space. The space (4 x 5 sqm) as authentic and real an evocation as possible of the brothers’ shared workspace – down to the marks, paint-stains on the floor, all preserved and shipped intact to Berlin.
The installation not only reflects the myriad cultural and personal reference points and inspirations of the pair, it offers penetrating insights into the practice of these two fiercely-independent, autocratic figures who are spearheading the new wave of contemporary art from the Middle East.
The Haerizadehs, each in their own way, address histories - personal, social and cultural – in their work. History is challenged, confronted and distorted, the flotsam and incidentals of Western and Middle Eastern culture mingle in vivid collisions and compromises. ‘XXXXXXXXX’ discusses at a deeper level, a number of questions and concerns from the pair, touching on topics ranging from the brothers’ reactions to the commodification and market-orientated aspect of the contemporary art world, the prevalent attitudes to non-Western contemporary artists as well as the paramount importance of collaboration, synergy and emotional journey of the creative process.
The work on display at ABC demonstrates the pair’s shared fascination with the manipulation and appropriation of eclectic imagery juxtaposed in stark and dramatic relief. Using pages ripped from publications including Artforum. Modern Painters, Canvas and Artinvestor Hello! and National Geographic, the work reflects the brothers’ experiences with the Western art world and their reactions to the vapidity and shallowness of celebrity-obsessed art scenes. Using a number of signifiers and visual tropes, from raw, ugly pornography to puckish scribblings and cheeky alignments of cut-pasted faces and figures, the work echoes with the trademark characteristics which repeatedly recur in Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh’s work – humour, bleakness, visual punning and wicked, acerbic wit.
Born and raised in Tehran, Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh have enjoyed a close bond since childhood, when their deep artistic rapport found an early outlet in the form of comic strips. Since then, the Haerizadehs have each asserted their individuality into their own successful careers - Rokni submerging himself in paint, Ramin a manipulator of found images and photography. Yet, between their distinct practices, the siblings continues to oscillate wildly through overlapping fields of engagement, boundaries between their works blur and in their shared workspace, a unique and galvanizing energy comes into being. It is this elusive, exciting sense of creativity and possibility that emerges in ‘XXXXXXXX’.
In ABC, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde presents two artists who are at the very forefront of the new narrative of the Middle East, bringing their trademark wit, insight and historical perspectives to bear on a new and unique presentation.
ROKNI and RAMIN HAERIZADEH
‘Non-Collaborative Collaboration’ ‘XXXXXXXX’
Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai
ABC ART BERLIN CONTEMPORARY
‘About Painting’
7-11 September 2011
Booth 48b & 49b
