A pink taxi

A pink taxi

May 16, 2011

The Tower of Babel: A Vignette



I passed my phone around to show photos of IVDE gallery's latest exhibit: all drawings by Iranian artist Farshid Maleki.

At dinner, my friends asked: "so will you write a blog about it?" I wasn't sure there and then. But the question simmered in my mind, as it does sometimes. Indeed, some blog topics, I dismiss first, because I claim I can't grasp "the twist", afraid it would be too banal.

But banal this art was not: we were discussing it over dinner and I was sending images of it to my relatives. The selected image above was considered too scattered by some, almost disturbing by another. It was the image that I had showed to one of the gallerists. I asked her: "do you think it's the Tower of Babel?"

She did look intrigued by my remark and she came closer to the scribbly magic marker portraits, nudes, and zoomed on my reference. I added: "it could be a wedding cake, but do you think it is?" And I appended: "you see my son is studying the Tower of Babel in art history and now I see it everywhere!"

Perhaps I do live in an ivory tower. On this blog, my sister once illustrated that admission with a painting of the Tower of Babel!


5 comments:

  1. Dear Yasmin,
    Thanks for your comments on Farshid Maleki's work! His works are indeed scattered and so are the viewers reactions. After multiple attempts to rationalize his dream-like universe, I have admitted that Farshid Maleki inspirations and motivations are grounded in his subconscious and emotions, the expression of it almost comes like 'automatic drawing'. In other words, the tower of Babel yes, a wedding cake yes too. Another thought-provoking comment came up yesterday, from my dad actually who said that all the works contain symbols of life and death and that this particular work integrates sexual elements, symbolizing reproduction, continuation of life ... Another person told me that he practices parachute jumping and that this work reminds him of the feeling of floating in the air .. Isabelle

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