ART CITIES:Paris-Ali Banisadr
Born in Tehran in 1976, Ali Banisadr grew up during the Islamic revolution and the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. In 1988, he and his family left Iran, first to Turkey and then to California. In 2000, he moved to New York City where he currently lives and works. His work demonstrates a careful balancing act between chaos and composure, and abstract and figurative painting and drawing.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Archive
Ali Banisadr once remarked that his childhood memories, notably of the Islamic revolution and the brutal Iran-Iraq war, were a mix of images, half abstract and the other half with recognizable forms. Present in all of his works is a sense of sound and movement that is due to the way in which Banisadr condenses his imagery, and chooses a wide range of colours to bring his subject to life. Alluding to the representation of conflicts in the history of art, this new series of Ali Banisadr’s paintings that are on show at his solo exhibition “Ordered Disorders” reflects upon the current state of increasing unrest in the world. Neither fully abstract nor definitively figurative, Banisadr’s richly evocative paintings do not seem to have any single narrative. Within the same picture plane multiple dimensions are conflated, translating an internal experience of sound into visual terms. Ali Banisadr is gifted with synaesthesia*, whereby otherwise separate senses are linked, in this case color and sound. This ability translates into abstract landscapes rendered in vibrant colors, a trait that links him to the work of Wassily Kandinsky, who also experienced synaesthesia. The restless surfaces of Banisadr’s paintings juxtapose competing sensibilities, setting areas of orderly, precise brushwork against energetic, gestural ones. As indicated in the title of the exhibition, the artist sees his paintings as an attempt to understand the innate chaos of the world. They do not reflect any specific conflict but rather express universal turmoil. Having always been fascinated by how systems function (whether political, cultural or historical) Banisadr paints complex structures in which different elements intermingle, adopting a wider view of the system to analyse it at a macro level. In most paintings, the organisation of space is disrupted and the focus is lost. Banisadr avoids any central focal point or protagonist to emerge from the pictorial field. Instead, multiple figures flow into each other and overlap. This conflation creates much of the energy that emanates from the paintings. Jumping from one narrative to another creates an unsettling effect, as if different voices were speaking at the same time, and the viewer is left to make their own sense of the symphony of color and form. While Banisadr’s practice is anchored in the lineage of art historical figures such as Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516), his art also resonates strongly with the world we live in today. The enigmatic figures that populate his compositions are often hybrids. Stemming from the artist’s imagination and his fascination with mythological creatures, they embody the constantly shifting identities of our increasingly digital world. Figures are depicted in the process of metamorphosis, where only the lower part is recognisable and the upper body has become squid-like in shape. If there is no clear before and after in Banisadr’s paintings, the interface between above and below remains important, the upper part of the canvas being generally quieter than the lower part. The more time spent in front of a Banisadr painting, the more the work unveils itself to the viewer. What at first glance appear to be abstract lines and lyrical forms begin to morph into characters involved in enigmatic narratives. Hidden creatures appear in the depths of the composition, wide brushstrokes attain new significance and pure abstraction becomes deliberate form.
* Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people’s names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor.
Info: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7 Rue Debelleyme, Paris, Duration: 17/10-16/11/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.ropac.net
