JOUR DE SILENCE
NAZANIN POUYANDEH
3 NOV - 10 DEC 2014
THE MINE is pleased to present “Jour de Silence," Nazanin Pouyandeh’s first solo exhibition in the United Arab Emirates. Is a painting defined by its subject matter or by the medium used? What is the most important for an artist: the motif portrayed or the motivation that drives him to cover the canvas with colors “assembled in a certain order,” as stated by Maurice Denis, the French symbolist painter? What would Michelangelo paint if he were alive today: the same religious subjects, scenes of ordinary life, or vast abstract paintings? When faced with the narrative and richly colored paintings of Nazanin Pouyandeh, the viewer, whether or not already familiar with her work, is irresistibly led to question the very nature of her intended approach. If it is less than certain that he is able to identify the subject matter, it is specifically because the painting is first and foremost an illusion, and that hers in particular uses metaphors, narratives, and a confused tangle of reality and fiction. Who is this devilish creature—a legendary figure or a true flesh-and-blood heroine? What are these people up to? Are they playing a game whose rules they invented, or are they exposing a sensitive event?
And the woman with loosened hair, barefoot, and encircled by a pile of fabric—who is she really? Nazanin Pouyandeh has taken good care not to reveal her secrets. She has at least chosen to address the challenge by making it impossible for the viewer to ever perceive the truth. The painter does not seek to designate or describe; her art is revealed by evocation and suggestion. It is an open invitation for us to encourage and develop our imagination by stimulating our thoughts, dreams, and fantasies. To this effect, Nazanin Pouyandeh draws her inspiration from different sources and uses varying protocols. Here she draws on traditional imagery and there a historical fact. Every now and then, she uses a particular model and, on occasion, sets up a casting with some of her closest friends. In short, she calls upon the principles of staging, thereby maintaining a privileged relationship with the theater. As is the case for that particular art form, her art opens onto a fascinating world, combining reality and fantasy, action and suspense, the bizarre and familiar. The scene is finally set to master the art of suggestion, where the images portrayed are the embodied expression of her troubled and apprehensive presence in this world.
By Philippe Piguet – French art critic and curator.
