Suspension…

I enjoyed meeting Iranian artist Hooman Mehdizadehjafari at his “Suspension” show at the Aaran Art Gallery in Tehran. Each piece in the exhibit was done with graphite — it was mind-blowing to look up close at the thousands of pencil strokes carefully placed for different shadings and effects. The show was a big hit with our group, and a few of my fellow travelers from the Commonwealth Club of California purchased some of the works on display. Here are Hooman’s own words on the exhibit:

Suspension is an infinite concept, eternal and profluent till end of time. Gazing at nebulas and galaxies, the whole concept of eternity and perpetuity becomes even more perplexing and fluid; absolute abstractions. The Endeavour to visualize the depth and width of these concepts is another kind of Suspension; drowning in questions that are as old as creation. In all of this the most tangible phenomenon are humans. The suspended human in an indescribable space, empty and devoid of gravity, with no willpower or control, adrift and eternally bewildered; constantly staring in to the abyss. In any second they might not be anymore. Figures that are timeless and placeless and utterly farfetched. Humans drawn with pencil appear on large scale paper – both paper and pencil being transitory mediums-, one second in the apex and the next at falling edge. Just like us, like all of us. Defying gravity, both as a natural force and in complexity of situation, in form and concept, these group of works suggest motion and fluidity and by blending what is stable and what is mobile, gracefully portray the uncertainties of our era and world in general. Swallowed up and dazed in instances of life. In words of Ahmad Shamlou: I touch you and comprehend the world/ I think of you/ and touch time/ suspended and eternal/ naked. I blow, I pour, I shine…