Golbanou Moghaddas, Hoopoe Mural
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Imagining the Unforeseen
Golbanaou Moghaddas
October 4 - November 23 Artist's Reception: Friday, November 1st, 6-9 pm Artist's Talk/Gallery Walk Through Saturday, November 16th, 2 pm (with artists Jennifer Brazelton and Shenny Cruces) |
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The Unexpected, The Justified Sham, The Unforeseen, The Clash of Divine Intelligence
3 x3 Inches, Etching, Printed of Japanese Gampi Paper, Chine Colle,
3 x3 Inches, Etching, Printed of Japanese Gampi Paper, Chine Colle,
Transmission is pleased to present etchings and murals by Golbanou Moghaddas in our North Gallery. Inspired by a recent residency, Moghaddas comments on the series:
Throughout the Safavid Dynasty, which ruled the Persian Empire from 1501 to 1722, artists working at the Royal Atelier created some of the most outstanding manuscripts of the era. During a residency in New York City, I had the opportunity to study some of the original manuscripts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Shahnameh of Shāh Tahmāsp, particularly, inspired the aesthetics of my work, and The Conference of The Birds, to some extent, has influenced the content without clinging to any specific ideology or belief.
I found the border designs of the manuscripts as intriguing as the main illustrations. I selected individual animals originally depicted on the borders of the manuscripts as golden silhouettes, transformed and personalized them, and gave them a chance to become the centerpiece. In recent pieces I emphasized the Hoopoe, a significant bird from Attar’s Conference of The Birds. In the original story, Hoopoe invites all the birds to embark on a journey to meet Simurgh, a fantastical bird that represents perfection and unity. My imaginary Hoopoe appears to offer an inconsistent character. Sometimes it opposes perfection; at other times it leaves you in an indecisive situation. It might stand against Simurgh or become Simurgh itself.
The story of each frame is unique and composed from my imagination. Inspired by the avant-garde layout of the manuscripts, I chose to present my work off-centered. Together, the etchings, the borders, the frames and the large mural frame, which embraces some of the pieces, aim to invite the viewer to imagine walking through an open manuscript with the hope of drawing nearer and discovering the story through a small window of a delicate etching.
My visual narratives are psychoanalysis of our endeavors in life to meet the expectations of society, while wrestling not to lose track of an authentic identity, which dares daydreaming, sunbathing, nature gazing, poetry loving, and simply being lost in thoughts without feeling guilt.
This exhibition is a glimpse of an endless drive that has led my imagination to become something imaginable.
Moghaddas is an Iranian narrative visual artist based in San Francisco, CA. She moved from Tehran to London in 2008, where she completed an MA in Communication Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She is a winner of the Best of British Illustration award (2011), and the illustrator of The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, published by Granta Publication, UK. In 2012 she was awarded an MFA Fellowship from San Francisco Art Institute, which brought her to the west coast. In the Bay Area, she has worked with Master Printer Paul Mullowney. She is a Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Award winner (2013), a Manhattan Graphics Center Scholarship winner (2017), and a Kala Art Institute Fellowship Award (2017-2018). Her work was selected for IPCNY New Program: Winter 2018, and The 1st International Juried Print Biennale India. She has exhibited internationally at the Museum of London, Kensington Palace and Bankside Gallery in the UK, as well as Berlin, and Luxembourg. In the Bay Area she has showed at SOMArts Cultural Center, Richmond Art Center, San Francisco Center for the Books, Arc Gallery, The Peninsula Museum, San Francisco Public Library Sklylight Gallery, and Minnesota Street Project. She is an Artist in Residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, and an Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito.
Showing concurrently in the South Gallery at Transmission is Transgressive Terra(tory), featuring ceramic and mixed media works by Jennifer Brazelton and Shenny Cruces.
