Untitled
2006
Mixed media on paper using gouache.
400 x 400 mm
(15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches).
Shiraz, Iran 1955 ~
Shirazeh Houshiary is an Iranian painter, sculptor and installation artist. She has lived and worked in England since 1973. She studied at the Chelsea School of Art from 1976 to 1979 and for the year 1979-1980 she was a junior fellow at Cardiff College of Art. In the 1980s she was presented as a figurehead for new British art and often grouped with such young British sculptors as Anish Kapoor and Richard Deacon. Her work has always been distinguished by its interpretation of Persia's cultural background in combination with an appreciation and understanding of Western traditional art as well as Western modernism. Initially she was pressurised to become a figurehead for Iranian art in Britain's 'identity-driven' exhibitions of the 1990s. However, when creating a work of art, Houshiary's desire has always been to avoid the cults of individuality and originality that dominate Western art practice. She has concentrated on moving beyond barriers of race and gender to a space shared by all humanity. In this quest, she is fully supported by Eastern mysticism and most specifically Sufism which emphasizes the interdependence of unity and multiplicity. Her work is also influenced by the writings of the 13th century Persian mystic Jalahuddin Rumi.
Traditional Islamic art may be enjoyed superficially for its beautiful, intricate patterns. However, it can only be fully appreciated by those who understand the religion and symbolism behind it and are aware that images of the Divine or God are forbidden. It is concerned with the quest for self-knowledge and the journey towards the Divine. In drawing, for example, the Divine originates in the point. From this point a line may be drawn to another point which becomes the radius of a circle. Circles can be intersect and then linked by means of an equilateral triangle. From this stage one moves on to the forms of a hexagon and a square. Houshiary uses this geometry as a means of transcendence. For example, her series of drawings called Dancing around my Ghost (1993), executed in seven parts, consists of delicately constructed circles and squares made up of many Arabic words evoking Islamic architecture and calligraphy.1 By 2003 Houshiary had moved on to a new series of works on paper where the Arabic letters had been replaced by a square gauze-like mesh reminiscent of a shroud or veil. Our sheet, of 2006, presents an even more abstract approach to these geometric forms and emphasizes the Sufic concern with light and dark. Light contains darkness because neither can be perceived without the other.2 A web-like pattern of very tightly connected, interlocking circles, in indigo blue, is further defined by an under-lying grid of tiny white circles. This exquisite design, like the fan of a peacock's tail, spreads across the black ground bringing light into darkness.
1. Shirazeh Houshiary, Dancing around my Ghost, exh. cat., London, Camden A Centre; Dublin, Hyde Gallery, 1993–4.
2. Jeremy Lewison in Isthmus, Shirazeh Houshiary, exh. cat. Magasin-Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, organised by The British Council, 1995, p.71.
