Of Labor, Of Dirt, 2014
Installation view
Ab-Anbar is pleased to present the exhibition Of Labor, Of Dirt by the Vancouver-based artist Babak Golkar.
Of Labor, Of Dirt extends Babak Golkar’s underlying inquiry into the individual’s compromise and negotiation when faced with the suppression and emotional distress of contemporary human conditions. The exhibition playfully engages, yet subtly hints to the more sombre reality of living in a time where systemic conditions often overpower basic human conditions. The impact of systems that were once consciously man-made now exist firmly in constative modes. Of Labor, Of Dirt offers no answers, but a glimpse into the dialectical conditions of these muted relations.
The exhibition features Golkar’s use of clay to access the idea of labour and production as a mode that can be studied and adapted to address imbalances in contemporary life. Cheekily, the labor output has resulted in fifty wheel-thrown terracotta scream pots and three large-scale terracotta scream-vessels, designed to mute or amplify a simple scream. Engaging with the scream pots allows the active visitor a momentary experience of the fine line between relief and contestation that resides in the simple gesture of a scream. A brief shift in stance provides the audience an ephemeral sense of how thinking and living in such suspended notions presents the ambiguous position of being both the object and the subject.
Of Labor, Of Dirt is the final cycle of works in a series of three exhibitions that examine the dynamics and conditions of failure, that acknowledge systemic conditions and that inquire into the discontentment with the paradox of labor. The first cycle, Dialectic of Failure, was exhibited at the West Vancouver Museum in 2013 and was further developed and recontextualized for TIME TO LET GO…, a public installation, commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery.Ab-Anbar presentation of Golkar’s Of Labor, Of Dirt will mark his first solo exhibition in Iran and first ever display of his artworks in Tehran.
Of Labor, Of Dirt and the parallel events are made possible by the support of Ab/Anbar, West Vancouver Museum and the Third Line Gallery in Dubai. In collaboration with West Vancouver Museum, Ab-Anbar will publish a book to accompany the exhibition. In conjunction with the exhibition there will be an artist’s book launch, artist talk, panel discussion, lecture and workshop.
Artist Book’s launch: Friday, October 17th, 4:00 – 9:00 pm
Artist talk: Sunday, October 62th, 2014
Panel discussion: Thursday, October 03th, 2014
Workshop: Thursday, November 6th, 2014
Lecture: Thursday, November 13th, 2014