The Border Project Space is pleased to present An Absent View, a solo exhibition by the Iranian visual artist Leila Seyedzadeh. The show, curated by Jamie Martinez, will be on view from November 20 to December 12, 2020./// Seyedzadeh’s works—influenced by Persian miniature and landscapes—contemplates the “dwelling in-between two worlds,” the chasm between presence and absence. Her pieces are saturated with dichotomies: physical and non-physicality, inner and outer space, weight and weightlessness, transparency and opacity, and altitude and gravity. As an expatriate living on the east coast of the United States, she has struggled to connect to Western landscapes. In turn, she has assembled an installation that is reminiscent of Tehran: “I have been carrying my memories of the mountains of Tehran and I’m trying to recreate them.” To pay homage to her native land, she uses materials imbued with cultural and symbolic profundity: large hand-dyed fabrics and Persian hand woven jajims, handmade textiles, woven from cotton or wool (a fabric that has contributed to Iran’s rich, artistic history). She, tactfully, constructs peaks and contours with ropes and folds, a contrast to the rigid, stable structure of the jajims that lay beneath the vibrant and playful collage of cloth. Seyedzadeh integrates her narrative—extractions from her subconscious—into her installation, which manifests into an expansive, dynamic reflection of an absent view.

The Blue Sky The Sky is not blue in all places There are mountains, there are trees There are no mountains, there are trees/// Yet the sky here is higher The shadows follow me The outlines around the objects My imagination of the perception of the objects A single sugar cube dissolved in the ocean Tied to a familiar object in a suitcase I have placed my hand on a driftwood of memories From the zenith to the nadir, from the abyss of the ocean to the apex of the sky Towards which haven in this endless ocean? “Here my heart is full of yearning and wistfulness And every instrument whose sound I hear is inharmonious Let’s pack our travel satchels And head towards an endless journey To see whether the sky is the same color in other places”* Leila Seyedzadeh *Mehdi Akhavān-Sāles

Curator: Jamie Martinez