HAMED DEHQAN AT KUNSTHAL EXTRA CITY
‘built in the midst’
- Until 24.07.22
‘built in the midst’ explores similarities, repetition, and differences in a magical constellation of references. The elements of the installation function as sculptures, feelings, or contexts, according to the phys-ical position of the observer. The visitor is therefore guided into the chapel in a constantly renovated discovery of various levels of visibility, seeing distinct compositions in relation to where they are standing.
This exhibition presents the transition from Hamed Dehqan’s former practice based in Iran to the development of his projects as an artist in residence at HISK. His previous site-specific installations took shape within these spaces with found objects that unfolded the collective life experience among plants and their behaviour as a form of (comparative study in) discovering the social human life. Plants and objects in those installations were used in a figurative manner and were the main subject of his study.
For this project he keeps exploring relative materials, colours, textures and shapes through objects in his installations. In his previous works he was an observer of his surroundings with a contemporary language defying to accept the classical form of painting and sculpture.
“If moving forward meant creating a bigger scale installation, I take a step back, to transform a three dimensional image into two dimen-sional colour, form, and texture.”
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I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
The Garden of Love
William Blake
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The artist’s practice is based on personal studies and research around phenomena of language and perception, engaging in a studio-based practice that creates a unique formal language through sculptural installations, multi-dimensional spatial drawings, and paintings.
Dehqan is an artist in residence at HISK Academy in Ghent (2022-2023) doing practice-based research in visual arts. His work has been shown at 3-Platform, Tehran, Iran, CalArts Expo, California, USA, and Lona Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil. In 2016, he started the Pansion Project, an art project space. He has also worked as a writer in collaboration with art magazines in Iran.
Curated by Yasaman Tamizkar and Valentina Bianchi / Supported by HISK
Special thanks to Isabel Devriendt, Adriënne van der Werf, Myrna D’Ambrosio, Arno Huygens and Gert Aertsen for their generous help.
This exhibition is the third instalment of Bodies of Work, a summer programme of exhibitions and events that unfolds in the chapel of Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp. Organised by the Curatorial Studies postgraduate at KASK & Conservatorium. bodiesofwork.be
Picture by © Van den Bussche-Vanden Bossche
