Of Labour, Of Dirt
Sazmanab-Ab/Anbar presents the exhibition Of Labour, Of Dirt by Vancouver-based artist Babak Golkar, curated by Elham Puriyamehr. Marking the opening of the new Sazmanab centre and the Ab-Anbar gallery, the exhibition engages the entire three-storey space of the centre.
Of Labour, Of Dirt extends Babak Golkar’s ongoing inquiry into the compromises and negotiations of the individual when confronted with suppression and emotional distress under contemporary human conditions. The exhibition playfully engages these questions while subtly pointing to the more sombre realities of living in a time in which systemic forces often overpower basic human conditions. Systems that were once consciously man-made now exist in fixed and self-sustaining modes. Rather than offering answers, Of Labour, Of Dirt proposes a glimpse into the dialectical conditions of these muted relations.
The exhibition features Golkar’s use of clay as a means to access ideas of labour and production as modes that can be studied and adapted in response to imbalances in contemporary life. The labour process results in fifty wheel-thrown terracotta scream pots and three large-scale terracotta scream-vessels, designed to either mute or amplify a simple scream. Engaging with the scream pots offers visitors a momentary experience of the fine line between relief and contestation embedded in the act of screaming. Through subtle shifts in stance and interaction, the audience encounters the ambiguous position of being both object and subject within these suspended conditions.
Of Labour, Of Dirt is the final cycle in a series of three exhibitions examining dynamics of failure, acknowledging systemic conditions, and questioning dissatisfaction with the paradoxes of labour. The first cycle, Dialectic of Failure, was exhibited at the West Vancouver Museum in 2013 and later recontextualised for TIME TO LET GO…, a public installation commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery. Sazmanab-Ab/Anbar’s presentation of Of Labour, Of Dirt marks Babak Golkar’s first solo exhibition in Iran and the first presentation of his work in Tehran.
Babak Golkar was born in Berkeley in 1977 and spent most of his formative years in Tehran until migrating to Vancouver in 1996. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Emily Carr Institute in 2003 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia in 2006. His practice investigates spatial analysis in relation to contemporary systemic conditions that overpower human experience. By merging and examining previously discrete systems and forms, and asserting both underlying unity and antagonistic tensions, Golkar develops a critical inquiry across cultural and socio-economic registers. His recent solo exhibition Dialectic of Failure at the West Vancouver Museum examined the fragile processes of compromise and negotiation between dichotomies such as historicism and modernity, art and craft, and modern reasoning and traditional mysticism.
Of Labour, Of Dirt and its parallel events are realised with support from West Vancouver Museum and The Third Line in Dubai. In collaboration with the West Vancouver Museum, Sazmanab-Ab/Anbar publishes an accompanying book. The exhibition programme includes an artist’s book launch, an artist talk, a panel discussion, a lecture, and a workshop.
Venue: Sazmanab-Ab/Anbar (Khaghani St.)
Dates: 17 October – 14 November 2014
Opening reception and artist book launch: Friday, 17 October, 15:00–22:00
Artist talk: Sunday, 26 October
Panel discussion: Thursday, 30 October
Workshop: Thursday, 6 November
Lecture: Thursday, 13 November
