Farhad Ahrarnia displays artworks in Beirut
TEHRAN – A selection of works by the UK-based Iranian artist Farhad Ahrarnia is on display in an exhibition at the Janine Rubeiz Gallery in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
Ahrarnia is presenting four bodies of his works from silver to inlaid mosaic works and embroidery at the exhibit entitled “Art in Another Language”.
For his first solo exhibition in Beirut, Ahrarnia translates historical events, images, monuments and ideas into a visual language, beautifully expressing the complexities of the intercultural dialogue.
In his series, “A Woman from Arabia”, Ahrarnia uses embroidery to embellish and cross-stitch photographs taken by English archaeologist and writer Gertrude Bell.
Bell explored, mapped and influenced British colonial policymaking in the Middle East during the early 20th century.
Ahrarnia traces and highlights her role as a colonial surveyor who used rulers and pencils to cut the Middle East, stitching her photographs with needles and leaving “loose threads” to hint at other readings of history.
Ahrarnia was born in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. In 1997, he graduated with a degree in experimental and documentary film theory and practice from the Northern Media School, Sheffield Hallam University. He has lived in Sheffield ever since.
“Art in Another Language” has been organized in collaboration with Rose Issa, an independent curator from London, and will be running until October 24.
“Stage on Fire” (2014), “Canary in a Coal Mine” (2012) and “Stitched” (2008), all of which were in London, are among Ahrarnia’s other solo exhibits.
Photo: No. 11, a handmade embroidery from Iranian artist Farhad Ahrarnia’s series “A woman in Arabia”.
RM/MMS/YAW