Statement:

O Gallery presents “Metal Seed”, an exhibition of recent works by Mohammad Hassanzadeh (b. 1979 Gachsaran).

This project confronts the phenomenon of oil in contrast to the socio-cultural and natural life of people in the South. The impact of oil has brought significant changes and consequences to the lives of Southern people; including climate change, establishment of industrial workshops and labor camps, in addition to the formation of highly deprived margins alongside the oil fields; significantly redefining the nature of South.

This project refers to the socio-cultural and natural lives of people whose human and non-human existence has been deeply and permanently influenced by the discovery and extraction of oil, casting a shadow over their uncertain future to date.

The forthcoming project is in continuation to the artist’s previous projects, “Oil: Height of Depth” and “Natural Trophies”. In fact, if we examine the trajectory of these artistic projects, they have moved from the whole to the part and vice versa. The focus of  the “Surface Layers” project is on three sections: Metal Seed (waste), Inside the Smoke (burnt land, oil landscapes), and Imagination of Soil (focus on wild and resilient plants).