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Within the round canvas works of Iranian artist Pooya Aryanpour, intangible fantasies are pursued, tempting and desirable yet apt to vanish into thin air the moment one reaches for them. They embody the artist’s own sense of helplessness, a sense of being unable to fight the relentless march of time coupled with an incessant longing to arrive at some destination. Like J Alfred Prufrock, Aryanpour frets over his inability to seize the day, using his work as a form of fantasy through which to escape reality. Within this fantasy world, he becomes unburdened and free, no longer seeking perfection, but rather, at peace with being an imperfect being. Rhythmic strokes of white seem to float in the ether, wispy, astral and delicate amongst a seemingly organic background of midnight blue, maroon, murky grey or forest green.
Like Monir Farmanfarmaian before him, Aryanpour’s mirror works draw on the rich Iranian tradition of mirror mosaics (aineh-kari), created as ornaments in shrines and palaces over the centuries. Aryanpour takes these traditional Islamic geometric and architectural designs and, by using the multi-faceted surface created by multiple mirrors, creates a new artistic language. Bodies reflected in the mirrors become refracted and broken, reminiscent of torn torsos and limbs, and are deconstructed in order to be reconstructed and rebuilt anew. It is within this very absence of clarity that Aryanpour then is able to discover new layers of reality.
Says the artist: “Events and occurrences, which have their own logic, are the accidents which I reveal in my work and through them I discover a new layer of meaning. Years ago, when I entered high school, I painted as a means to escape the mundane academic atmosphere of the educational system. I failed to understand the relevance of the subjects being taught to my daily life. I opted to enter the art academy and that marked the beginning of my journey into the world of art, a world in which I learned to discover myself.”
It is within these fantasies of creation that Aryanpour creates a circular dialogue, as geometry, elusive lines and forms and dark nebulas of colour pool and flow together in a myriad different ways. It is here that Aryanpour is able to depict the world the way he wishes to see it, the world he wishes he were in. The imperfect becomes perfect, the intangible tangible, and the fantasy becomes a new reality.
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