.jpg "Iranian sculptor Parviz Tanavoli poses beside a work from his series “Heech” in an unadated photo.")
TEHRAN – The Davis Museum in the Wellesley College of the United States will be holding a retrospective of celebrated Iranian sculptor Parviz Tanavoli in an exhibition opening on February 10.
“I am very happy this is happening, especially in the United States, because of this embargo and lack of communication,” Tanavoli told the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) in an exclusive interview published last week.
Middle East Monitor is an independent media research institution in Washington founded in 1946 to foster a fair and accurate coverage of Middle Eastern issues.
“I think this might open the door. Americans have the right to see the other side of our culture; I mean the cultural part not just all this bad news,” Tanavoli said.
He added, “This is a good time, a good period, and I’m very much looking forward that there is going to be communication through art, and Americans can see a taste of the art of Iran and myself and that part of the world.”
Over 175 of his pieces will go on exhibit until June 7, and according to the artist, the exhibit will be a good opportunity for Americans to experience Iranian culture that often gets lost in news reporting.
As a young boy, Tanavoli’s favorite toy was the simple lock. As there were no ready-made toys like those of today he would take them apart, fix them and make keys for the ones that didn’t work.
“I was the locksmith of the neighborhood because all the locks in those days had one key and they were handmade. There weren’t that many machine-made locks. If there were they were very expensive,” he said in the interview.
Later Tanavoli went to Italy to study. It was on his return, that he realized the role locks played in Persian culture.
“People who have wishes or problems go to the saqqakhaneh (water drinking places) and tie up a strip of their clothing or fasten a lock to the grille hoping that they can unlock their problems and cure their sicknesses or disease,” explains Tanavoli. “So the lock has great significance in Persian culture.”
Another concept central to Tanavoli’s work is the principle of “Heech”, Farsi for “nothing”. Like the lock, the word Heech has been molded by the artist and incorporated into the anatomy of his sculptures numerous times.
Tanavoli describes the shape of Heech as malleable and soft, a word that can be put in a cage or on the walls.
In 2008 Tanavoli’s “The Wall” (Oh Persepolis), a two meter bronze sculpture etched with hieroglyphics, made a record sale when Christie’s auction house sold it for $2.84 million, the highest ever paid for a piece of artwork from the Middle East.
Despite this, Tanavoli says that commercial success has not compromised his work. “I didn’t follow the market or market requests, in fact I turned them down in many instances and I followed my path. I continued doing my thing and opted out. I haven’t changed; I haven’t really commercialized any of my art.”
Tanavoli’s work can be found in private and public collections from the British Museum in London to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York.
RM/YAW
END