Shezad Dawood
dal 8/10/2010 al 12/11/2010
Segnalato da
8/10/2010
Shezad Dawood
Paradise Row, London
The exhibition describes flight paths and suggests arcs of movement through realms of esoteric wisdom. It comprises of a careful variety of esoteric symbols printed and painted onto vintage textiles and a series of sculptures, suspended in mid-air, of strange and seductive exotic birds flying through rings of coloured neon.
'The waves flung up against the purple glow
of double sleeplessness. Along the piers
the ships return; but sailing I would go
through double rings of fire, double fears.
So therefore let your bright vaults heave the night
about with ropes of wind and points of light
and say, as all the rolling stars go, 'I
have stood my feet on rock and seen the sky.'
The opening lines of the epic: Of the conflicts between Leptar and Aptor, by the one-armed poet Geo
'Though you have struggled, wandered, travelled far,
It is yourselves you see and what you are.'
(Who sees the Lord? It is himself each sees;
What ant's sight could discern the Pleiades?
What anvil could be lifted by an ant?
Or could a fly subdue an elephant?)
'How much you thought you knew and saw; but you
Now know that all you trusted was untrue.'
The Conference of the Birds, Farid Ud-Din Attar
This exhibition describes flight paths and suggests arcs of movement through realms of esoteric wisdom.
The Jewels of Aptor is Shezad Dawood's second solo show at Paradise Row. It continues Dawood's ongoing practice of both revealing and creating moments of synthesis and unexpected harmony between seemingly disparate, bodies of knowledge, cultural traditions and value systems.
Accordingly the exhibition takes various texts as its staring point; The Conference of Birds, a twelfth-century poem by the Sufi mystic Farid Ud-Din Attar, in which the heretical message that divinity flows through all things is concealed in poetic allegory of shimmering beauty, The Unlimited Dream Company by J.G. Ballard, in which a Dionysian figure miraculously emerges from a submerged plane, crashed into the Thames and catalyses the transformation of the London suburb of Shepperton into a jungle, full of fevered desire, and The Jewels of Aptor, the 1962 novel by cult science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany, set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a poet saves a princess trapped in a irradiated land, full of mutants.
The show comprises of a careful variety of esoteric symbols printed and painted onto vintage textiles and a series of sculptures, suspended in mid-air, of strange and seductive exotic birds flying through rings of coloured neon.
The works engage with the idea of eternal recurrence and represent a journey through, the subterranean, irrational and esoteric foundations of Modernism, a morass of subcultural theories, such as those of Erich von Daniken, that link ancient esoteric wisdom with alien cultures and the great bodies of mystical, religious and philosophical thought that have shaped human consciousness.
Works from this new series are being simultaneously exhibited at the Busan Biennale, Korea, 2010. Dawood has recently participated in Rude Britannia, Tate Britain, 2010, The Empire Strikes Back, Indian Art Today, The Saatchi Gallery, 2010, Altermodern / 4th Tate Triennale, Tate Britain, 2009 and East-West Divan, 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009.
Image: Shezad Dawood, Iris, 2010, Acrylic on vintage textile
Press Enquiries:
Rhiannon Pickles
T: +44 (0)20 7096 8809
M: 31 6158 21202
rhiannonpickles@mac.com
info@paradiserow.com
http://www.paradiserow.com
Opening Saturday 9 October 2010, 6-9pm
Paradise Row Gallery
74 Newman Street, London
Hours: Mon - Fri 10 am - 6 pm, Thurs 10 am - 8pm, Sat 10am - 6pm
Free admission