The most striking element in the works of young Iranian artists Gazzal Khateebi and Morteza Zayedi is their playfulness. Both revel in using unconventional materials to create witty and fun artworks.
At first glance, their paintings and collages seem frivolous and childlike, but hidden behind those innocuous, light-hearted images are profound statements about geopolitics and the harsh realities of life.
Khateebi uses acrylics, oil paints, ink and found objects such as cookie tins to create her three-dimensional artworks. She has a knack for taking ordinary, everyday objects and presenting them in a totally different perspective.
Her first solo exhibition in Dubai, titled The Ridiculous Half … features three different series of works. The series titled Rain Globes is inspired by the toy globes that depict beautiful sceneries.
But Khateebi's globes represent a world where human beings have no respect for each other or their environment. Through her simple paintings, the artist comments on the fragility of our lives and how different they are from the tranquil, romantic scenes of gently falling snowflakes depicted in the globes.
She also expresses her views on various socio-political issues, such as the raging debate among Iranian intellectuals about whether they should stay in the country or leave (stay, she says).
In her Hunterland series, the Tehran-based artist has transformed various items used for hunting into pieces of jewellery. Fish hooks covered with glitter and colourful feathers are presented as earrings with the witty title Fashion Lure. And an arrow, decorated with gold and silver thread, is called Body Jewellery.
Other works in this series include Silent Whistle, a decorated hunting whistle, and a hunting mask titled Scent-proof Skin. The pieces are presented on Plexiglas plates, just like accessories in a shop. Through this clever dig at fashion victims and the marketers who prey on them, the artist focuses on various forms of victimisation and brutality in our society, violence sold over the counter and the ugliness often disguised as beauty to lure people.
However, Khateebi's most intriguing series is Key Ways. Here the artist uses handmade calligraphy paper to create a set of technical drawings of the mechanism of everyday objects such as bolts, zippers and door knobs. Her detailed marker drawings show that the artist enjoys playing with different materials and that in her hands, even a zipper can become a piece of art.
But hidden in the titles such as Tongue Zipper, Dead Bolt and Great Golden Way are allusions to deeper issues such as censorship, lack of freedom and what happens behind closed doors in her country. "A lot of things in my world are ridiculous. But I prefer not to see the ridiculousness. Instead, I play with things that take my fancy as an artist and choose to laugh at life," she says.
Zayedi's approach is similar. His colourful collages and their curious titles present the tensions of daily life in a lighter vein. The artist, who is a well-known illustrator, is greatly inspired by Picasso.
"For Picasso, art was effortless, easy and accessible. Understanding the legendary artist's relaxed attitude to life and art changed my thinking and artistic vision and made me believe I could create art with any medium, even with simple, childish strokes," he says.
The artist uses folded paper, broken toys, colourful stickers, needle and thread, markers, acrylic paints, popular characters from cartoons, films and literature, events reported in the newspapers and everyday scenes such as Tehran's notorious traffic to create collages that provide amusing insights into life and socio-political issues. But the title of his first solo exhibition in Dubai, Cold Sore, reveals his discomfort and unhappiness about what he sees around him.
In a series titled Palettes, Zayedi has used the shape of his palette to depict what he sees and feels. "I begin with a basic idea in mind but gradually, incidents in my life, what I read in the newspapers, and toys and stickers from my collection appear on my palette and become part of my work. The process is spontaneous and reflects my subconscious thoughts," he says.
Non-Iranians may not understand many of the references in the artworks and their funky titles but will connect with the ideas behind them. For instance, titles such as Happy Times - A Verbal Memory and Taking the Anti-disaster Pill Before … need no explanation. But works such as Strolling in the Bush With Bogus Emotions and Group of Gumless Teeth are open to myriad interpretations.
Zayedi's ease of expression is best seen in his collages composed of folded paper, old photographs and tickets, childish scrawls with markers, embroidered stitches and an assortment of found objects.
The subjects range from oil exploration in Iran to football and politics. A hard-hitting piece from the artist is titled President's Jacket and features a piece of yellowed paper folded to look like the Iranian leader's famous jacket, with the word "Time" embroidered with thread.
But next to it, a light-hearted piece features bits of paper, childish ink strokes and a plastic toy chef. Epitomising Zayedi's attitude to life and art, this piece is simply titled Creative Cooking.
Jyoti Kalsi is a UAE-based arts enthusiast.
The Ridiculous Half… and Cold Sore will run at XVA gallery until January 5, 2011.
