Wushui
Titled Wūshuǐ, the exhibition explores the connection between political ideologies and representations of the landscape. The exhibition title Wūshuǐ – meaning polluted water – is a bastardization of the Chinese phrase Shan Shui or ‘mountain water,’ a style of landscape painting in Taoist painting tradition that refers to ideas of purity. Through this lens Pouyan […]
The Secret History of the Carthaginian War Elephant
The fictional autobiography of Hannibal Barca, written by Anelise Chen: Discovery of the Elephant Cache at La Zaouia de Sidi Boukhrissane In late 2010, a group of youths seeking refuge during the Jasmine Revolution demonstrations scaled a wall and found themselves here at the Zaouia of Sidi Boukhrissane. Little did they know, they had stumbled […]
Lahore Biennale
Through the application of traditional aesthetics, Pouyan’s updated miniatures interrogate enduring notions of fate and destiny by superimposing the past upon the present. In Islamic and Sufi symbology, the ship represents destiny and the adventure of life. Water, a sacred element, represents clarity and purification.In the Persian miniature tradition, water is always rendered in silver […]
Incarnation of the Body Politic, The Armory Show
At The Armory Show, 2018, Lawrie Shabibi presented a new body of work by Shahpour Pouyan as part of the Focus section, curated by Gabriel Ritter, Curator and Head of Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Ritter’s Focus section explores notions of the digital body/corpse/corpus, highlighting artists that broadly address questions such as […]