The Multidisciplinary Work of Farideh Lashai on View at Tabacalera Madrid

Under the title “Una tierra llamada Ideologia” (A Land Called Ideology), the exhibition takes over the Fragua and the Estudios hall of the art center and floods them with the unique personality of the Iranian artist.

Cypress Trees, Serie Arboles Cipreses, 2007 © Farideh Lashai. At promociondelarte.com

Farideh Lashai (1944-2013) was (and is) one of the most influential contemporary artists of the Iranian scene. Her body of work brings together the millennia-old tradition of Persian culture, the most subtle abstraction and the use of modern technological media to shape a singular career. Far from forming a purely aesthetic or plastic body of work, Lashai’s work is strongly influenced by the complex political situation of her country. The creator sought to reflect the bewilderment of Iranian society in the face of that situation, which drags on in time without reaching a democratic stability. The show “Una tierra llamada Ideologia”, curated by Paloma Martin Llopis, brings together thirty-five works spanning different disciplines: painting, sculpture and video. In some of them, visual projections are combined onto the pictorial supports, generating unique pieces capable of dazzling (and prompting reflection in) the viewer.

Catching the Moon, 2010-2013 © Farideh Lashai. At promociondelarte.com

The selection of works is organized into two parts, located in two different spaces of the Tabacalera Art Center: the Fragua and the Estudios hall. In the Estudios hall we find the series Rabbit in Wonderland (2010-2012), based on the book Alice in Wonderland by L. Carroll. In this series, a White Rabbit created in animation format moves across the pictorial works and brings the static surfaces to life. According to the exhibition’s organizers, the animal represents “the artist’s own bewilderment and fear in the face of adversity, but it also alludes to the frustration and unease of a collective: the Iranian people”. Continuing with the show, in La Fragua Lashai’s work changes radically to settle into a natural world, where trees (icons of Persian culture over the centuries) become the protagonists. However, these beings are more suggested than represented: their forms are glimpsed through the painter’s command of the expressive line, inspired by the millennia-old traditions of her people in works such as Miniaturas. The show “Una tierra llamada Ideologia” can be seen at Tabacalera until 31 March 2019.

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