11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Untitled 2023 / Synthetic polymer paint, fabric, cotton string, plaster on canvas / 100 x 150cm; Courtesy: The artist and Emkan Gallery, Tehran Untitled 2023 / Synthetic polymer paint, fabric, cotton string, plaster on canvas / 150 x 100cm / Courtesy: The artist and Emkan Gallery, Tehran BORN 1954, TEHRAN, IRAN LIVES+WORKS INTEHRAN Exhibiting since 1977, Shahla Hosseini is a senior figure in contemporary Iranian art. Her sensitivity for materials and subtle approach have had a strong impact on younger generations of Iranian artists. Although she was an accomplished naturalist painter early in her career, 25 years ago — following the death of her father — Hosseini moved away from figurative painting and became known for her assemblages. These works are comprised of animal bones, hair, discarded wooden objects, medical gauze, pieces of metal tools and parts of mechanical devices, and often incorporate small drawings and paintings. Hosseini’s assemblage boxes and sculptures appear to amalgamate remedial and metaphysical devices from the deep past or distant future, and are enigmatic in the present. Hosseini’s medical and celestial references continue in her Untitled 2023 canvases through the artist’s use of gauze and astrological arcs. These materially gentle and softly rendered paintings are expressions of the fragility of life. Slight shifts in whites take place across the canvases’ surfaces. Muted pinks, blues and yellows infuse colour into the geometrically reduced compositions. The subtlety of expression invites the viewer to look more attentively. The tonal changes in the Untitled paintings are complemented by delicate material shifts as Hosseini incorporates fabrics, thickened layers of paint, and plaster. The fabrics she uses are fraying and the plaster is cracking along the surface. This emphasises the limited lifespan of the materials and in doing so implies the mortality of all life forms. Arcs span the lengths and widths of the Untitled canvases, radiating towards and away from one another. As fragments of much larger circles, these images suggest limitless spaces far beyond the borders of the canvas. Circles make for evocative analogies: moons orbiting ancient planets, or cells dividing to create new life. They could also be metaphors for the societal or physical circles that we inhabit: personal, family or social bubbles; domestic or global spheres. Like Hosseini’s delicate configurations, these social constructs have thin and easy-to-pierce membranes. The delicacy of the lines, the vulnerability of the materials, and subtlety of the colours in Hosseini’s paintings draw attention to the tender and easily overlooked aspects of life. In two of Hosseini’s paintings included in the Asia Pacific Triennial, there are small thin arcs at the centre of the canvas between larger arcs. Are these the old forms receding or the beginning of new forms, perhaps are they existing circles coming into view following an eclipse? To put it another way, are these forms new, or do we just perceive them as novel? Hosseini describes the tension of the arcs pushing and pulling against the negative space in the Untitled paintings as similar to remembering the presence, and yet noticing the absence, of departed kin. The artist proposes these portrayals could be the last image her father would have seen through the thin slits of his eyes — the long arcs tracing the means through which he once perceived, rather than what he saw. Hosseini’s own eyes have continued to open and close and open again to witness death on a personal, national and global scale. Despite this loss, by continuing to look and create, Hosseini chooses to affirm life. ELLIE BUTTROSE SHAHLAHOSSEINI ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 108 — 109