Farhad Ahrarnia: Canary in a Coal Mine
Artworks by Farhad Ahrarnia
Edited by Rose Issa
Essays by Pippa Oldfield, Christopher de Bellaigue, Lutz Becker and Sara Raza
Hardback, 120 pages
Full colour
Published by Beyond Art Production (London) 2011
Artworks by Farhad Ahrarnia
Edited by Rose Issa
Essays by Pippa Oldfield, Christopher de Bellaigue, Lutz Becker and Sara Raza
Hardback, 120 pages
Full colour
Published by Beyond Art Production (London) 2011
Untitled (US Soldiers), 2008 © Farhad Ahrarnia, courtesy Rose Issa Projects
In his sculptures and embroidered digital prints on canvas, contemporary artist Farhad Ahrarnia draws inspiration from his upbringing in Iran to comment on inter-cultural misunderstanding, media manipulation, and the ongoing tug-of-war between modernity and tradition. His multi-layered works resonate with symbolism and can be interpreted a multitude of ways, but the warmth, wit, vibrant colours and unsettling tension of loose threads and needles leave an immediate and lasting impression.
The book includes the essay 'Touching Seeing: Farhad Ahrarnia’s US Soldiers and War Photography' by Pippa Oldfield, curator of the exhibition Bringing the War Home at Impressions Gallery in Bradford. She writes,
"Farhad Ahrarnia’s series of stitched photographic canvases entitled US Soldiers (2006-2008) was a key component of the show. This work, full of ambiguities and contradictions, complicates and expands our understanding of what might constitute a ‘war photograph’."
The essay explores what is at stake in Ahrarnia’s method of turning photographs into stitched, cloth objects, and consider how his ‘touching seeing’ offers potential for an enhanced emotional engagement with war photography.
Published to coincide with a solo exhibition at Rose Issa Projects, London, 18 January to 25 February 2012.
Published to coincide with a solo exhibition at Rose Issa Projects, London, 18 January to 25 February 2012.