Statement:

O Gallery presents “Sore”, an exhibition of recent works by Azin Zolfaghari (b. 1982 Neyshabur).

Fissures and attrition have appeared on the bodies of Azin Zolfaghari’s houses as evidence of ruination, and sometimes as a sign of an excessive desire for self-destruction. In the show called “Sore,” she builds a homeland and a home in the fear of displacement so as to temporarily heal the wounds of that corporeal deterioration. The scratches and abrasions of her previous works are now turning into festering boils that have now opened.

Following her “Density” and “Stricken” series, in which formal and painterly concerns stood out as complex perspectives and intersecting plains, this time Azin pays closer attention to the context in order to depict the individual and collective notions of “home” as human body or a space in society, with an unrestrained violence on the border of existence and non-existence.

In this series, Azin covers the doors and windows with red and white curtains in closed frames; as if the isolation present in her previous works has given way to an open act of defiance that rejects submission. She represents walls and houses that do not have clear borders; it is unclear exactly which war has left them in ruins and how time and space are trapped under the rubble.

Flat and dense perspectives cruelly constrict or even destroy the living space. It is a dire situation between external oppression and self-harm. The narrow enclosure turns into a stronghold for the artist to appease the feeling of insecurity and the lack of a sense of belonging to her home and physical body through an act of reconstruction.