You are here

Vinyl Icons: Persian Pop and Turkish Psychedelia

Type:

Venue:

Categories:

Exhibition Type:

Date: 
Saturday, 23 April 2016 to Saturday, 4 June 2016
Opening: 
Friday, 22 April 2016 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Vane is pleased to announce a forthcoming major exhibition, ‘Vinyl Icons: Persian Pop and Turkish Psychedelia’, a unique presentation of art inspired by the popular music of pre-revolutionary Iran and Anatolia. Curated by Sara Makari-Aghdam, a young North East England based curator of Azeri-Turk, Persian and English descent, the exhibition makes a clear connection between 1960s and 1970s Iranian popular music and contemporary visual art from the Iranian diaspora.

One of Makari-Aghdam’s earliest memories of connecting to her father’s background was discovering his Persian pop cassette tape collection from his youth. Makari-Aghdam’s father left Iran in 1974, five years before the Islamic revolution, to study engineering in the North East of England. For many diaspora migrants these records and tapes represent what life in Iran used to be, a time when modern musicians and artists were freely allowed to express themselves. Today Persian and Turkish pop records of this era, though scarce, have become highly collectable and an inspiration for many artists, as can be seen in the work of the five artists in the exhibition.

Afsoon’s ‘Fairytale Icons’ photomontages include images of iconic figures from both European and Middle Eastern culture. The artist’s nomadic life is reflected in her work, where East merges with West and the result is at once familiar and foreign, linking the themes of nostalgia and cultural hybridity, rich, yet often playful and humorous. Afsoon was born in Iran and moved to San Francisco, USA, in her late teens. She currently lives in London.

Khosrow Hassanzadeh combines pop art and over-the-top kitsch. The word Javad is used to describe Hassanzadeh’s style; as well as being a male name in the Persian language, it is used to describe an unsophisticated rural person, ‘fresh-off-the-boat’ in a big city. For Iranians this indicates something old-fashioned and laughable. Khosrow Hassanzadeh was born and currently lives in Tehran, Iran, where he works as an actor and visual artist.

Hushidar Mortezaie has been commissioned to make a hand-painted bespoke gown for the exhibition. The inspiration for his work ranges from the indigenous, nomadic, tribal peoples of Iran and Turkey, to the popular culture of the 1950s-70s – epitomized by the Iranian singer and actress, Googoosh, through to the post-revolutionary culture of the country today. Hushidar Mortezaie was born in Tehran, Iran and works as a designer and artist in New York, USA.

Malekeh Nayiny uses digital photography as a kind of ‘time machine’. Nayiny photographs demolition sites combining them with billboard advertisements, magazine covers, and mass-media images from before the Iranian revolution, as well as constructing collages from old family portraits. These are then digitally manipulated to accentuate a sense of fracture and temporal distance. Malekeh Nayiny was born in Tehran, Iran and she lives in Paris, France.

Taravat Talepasand trained in the challenging discipline of Persian miniature painting in Esfahan, Iran. Her egg tempera paintings and works on paper focus on the idea of ‘acceptable’ beauty and its relationship with art history under the guise of traditional Persian painting. She paints a present intrinsically linked to the past, easily understood by Iranians and intriguing for Westerners. Taravat Talepasand was born of Iranian parents in Eugene, USA, and lives in San Francisco, USA.

In addition to the artists’ work, there will be a display of record covers and related memorabilia, including 1960s and 1970s furniture and rare vintage fashion.

‘Vinyl Icons: Persian Pop and Turkish Psychedelia’ is supported by Arts Council England through Grants for the arts, Iran Heritage Foundation, the Art Fund, mima Strategic Development Fund, and the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.

Artist ( Description ): 

Sara Makari-Aghdam was born in Stockton-on-Tees. She studied BA (hons) in History of Modern Art, Design and Film at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne (2004-07) and Masters in Curating Contemporary Design at Kingston University and the Design Museum, London (2011). While studying for her Masters, Makari-Aghdam was chosen to assist the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Curator of Contemporary Arab Art and Design, Salma Tuqan, on the Jameel Prize, an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition.

Venue ( Address ): 

Representing a group of critically engaged artists from the North East of England, across the UK, Europe and the USA through projects at the gallery and elsewhere. Established in 1997, Vane operates a gallery space, as well as a flexible workspace for artists to develop new work. Vane is based within the Orbis Community of creatives in Gateshead town centre.

Vane , Gateshead

Other events from Vane

view
Jock Mooney, John Mooney: Not in Service
02/29/2024 to 03/23/2024
view
You know you want to
02/15/2024 to 02/17/2024
view
Closed Enough
11/30/2023 to 12/16/2023
view
Cozzy Livs
09/21/2023 to 10/07/2023

Pages

Related Shows This Week in UK

view
Philip Muñoz | Of Land, Sea and Sky
03/15/2024 to 04/20/2024
view
transfeminisms
03/08/2024 to 04/20/2024
view
Harold Cohen: Refactoring (1966-74)
03/08/2024 to 05/11/2024
view
Tim Noble & Sue Webster: Love and Hate at Firstsite
11/09/2023 to 12/31/2024
view
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2024
02/23/2024 to 06/02/2024
view
COME BUILD A BOAT
11/21/2023 to 04/09/2024
view
Lucy Harwood: Bold Impressions
12/02/2023 to 04/14/2024
view
Street Life
03/01/2024 to 05/18/2024

Pages