Through contemplative works of art astonishing for their intense beauty, sophistication, and virtuosity, London- and Tehran-based artist Shahpour Pouyan (born 1979) critiques oppressive power in all its forms. The exhibition features installations of ceramic sculptures and drawings that explore architectural symbols of power and the fragmentation and destruction of monuments in war, along with a virtual reality work that offers visitors an immersive, multisensory experience of the interior of a medieval Persian mosque.
For his series Monday Recollections of the Muqarnas Dome, Pouyan made thirty-nine daily drawings of the Imam al-Dawr, an eleventh-century tomb monument in Iraq that was destroyed by the Islamic State group (commonly known as ISIS) in 2014. Though he had never seen it in person, Pouyan was devastated by the loss and began to draw details of the building based on his own memories of a photo long hung in his studio. More recently he has continued his exploration of the Imam al-Dawr with ceramic sculptures that are unusually strong, but like any sculpture can be broken, as fragile as the vanished monument they depict.
The installation We Owe This Considerable Land to the Horizon Line consists of clay sculptures that each represent an architectural motif appearing in one or more of the three dominant building styles found in Iran: Islamic, fascist, and brutalist. Historically used by rulers, the forms, even on a small scale, speak the language of domination and subjugation. The ensemble, appearing like a desert metropolis, serves as a dystopian allegory for the dangers of totalitarianism, patriarchal rule, and the loss of individual freedoms.
Finally, Winter in Paradise is an immersive multisensory experience in virtual reality that brings visitors into the interior of an eleventh-century Persian mosque. A collaboration with artist and filmmaker Siavash Naghshbandi and musician Saba Alizadeh, the VR situates the visitor inside the empty building, enabling them to look around the exquisite structure. Pouyan complicates the current narrative about Iran by showing that it has also gifted the world with the concept of paradise embodied in architecture and gardens.
Shahpour Pouyan: Winter in Paradise was organized by the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, where it was supported in part by the 2022 Ellsworth Kelly Award, made possible by the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Its presentation at the Johnson Museum was organized by Ellen Avril, Chief Curator and the Judith H. Stoikov Curator of Asian Art, in conjunction with the Migrations Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Just Futures Initiative. Click here to read more about the Migrations Visiting Artists series at the Johnson Museum.
