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Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian

I won't wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views

Opening: Sunday, April 12, 6–8pm

April 12 – June 7, 2015

A photograph of the inside of the gallery. At left is the front window with a view of Delancey Street. Inside are 3 monitors playing videos and an installation of black triangles on the wall, bank near the window and running diagonally on the ground. There is a sculpture cropped at right of the frame.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the interior of the gallery. There is a site-specific installation with black triangles on the ground and flowers painted to be coming out of it. There are several mixed media sculptures installed on the ground. On the walls at more mixed-media works with the contents illegible. The pole is painted black and white with triangles.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the interior of the gallery from an elevated point in the back corner of the gallery. The front window and door are in the background. There are black and white triangles painted throughout the architecture of the space. There are numerous mixed media sculptures installed on the ground, and flat works installed on the wall in idiosyncratic places throughout the architecture of the room.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of a corner of the gallery, with artworks hung on the wall salon-style. In the center of the wall is a single row of abstract compositions. Otherwise some works are mixed media, others are painted. They are all framed in natural wood.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of a sculpture installed on the ground, made of a crutch attached to the body of a flamingo. In the background are a series of framed works hung low on the wall, contents illegible. There is also an artwork make of fabric above those framed works.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the gallery's site-specific installation. At right is a work on fabric with small sculptures above it. At left is a table made of plywood and 2 sawhorses that hold more flat works. There are also works beneath the table at left and right, framed in natural wood. Contents are illegible.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of two mixed media sculptures: on the left is a work made of tape rolls, steel wool, and 2 colanders; at right is a sculpture made of the head of a broom and a feather duster at the top with two small strainers jutting from either side.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the gallery from the back corner looking toward the door. A view of the basement staircase, showing a video at the bottom, is at left. The rest of the room is filled with flat works installed on the wall, mixed media sculptures installed on the ground, and a site-specific installation of black and white triangles on the ground and walls.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the inside of the gallery that provides a direct view down the staircase, which has a video playing. There are white rails surrounding the staircase. In the distance in the background is the window of the gallery at right, and a wall with the site-specific installation of black and white triangles. Upon the walls in the background are flat works installed on the walls.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the back office of the gallery that shows the desks and unique chairs created by the artists out of blue duct tape. On the walls are numerous mixed media works in natural frames. On the ground is the site-specific installation with black and white triangles.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of 2 mixed media artworks on board, hung in the office. Their background is newspaper, and they have folded collared shirts upon them.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of a large painting in the gallery with blue duct tape making varied shapes on the wall.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the gallery with the large painting, duct tape details upon the wall, and a table on a sawhorse. There is a series of three flat works on the wall as well.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

A photograph of the gallery that depicts a shelf made with sawhorses and 2 other flat works on the wall. There is a site-specific installation on the ground of black and white triangles as well.

Installation view, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian: I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY, 2015

Press Release

Callicoon Fine Arts is very pleased to present I won’t wait for grey hairs and worldly cares to soften my views, the first exhibition in the United States by Dubai-based artists Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian. The three have become known for their satirical approach to contemporary politics, building up immersive environments that blur the lines between their individual artistic practices, even while maintaining their own distinct identities. The elasticity of these categories is furthered with the inclusion of works by other artists in the exhibition. Be it from the Iran of their origin, or from aspects of American and European culture and art history, the artists gather allusions in a playful and subversive activity. 

Over the course of a multi-week installation the artists transform the gallery into an extension of their shared home and the work spaces of their studios. The accumulation places equal emphasis on their diverse sources. The extraordinary Zanni trickster of Commedia dell’arte, for example, or the friends and acquaintances that contribute to their daily life, all become a point of contact from which the trio develop their ongoing process. As “exhibition-cum-theatre,” the show includes video (in both performance and animation-based forms), painting, sculpture and collage, with the walls and floor of the space covered in painting. Networks of loose geometry, blooms of amaryllis, and illustrated figures in a style that references traditional forms of Iranian painting and calligraphy extend throughout the gallery. 

In an adaptation of Genet’s The Maids, a slide show of images documents the artists’ own performance of the play. Set in the baroque stage of the trio’s Dubai home, they enact a campy version of the sadomasochistic scenes and incorporate a tableau that references David’s The Death of Socrates. Also included in the exhibition is a sculptural assemblage with a water fountain at its base and a tumbling array of mannequin limbs, a pink rimmed jug and artificial flowers. In another work, a draped canvas depicts a partially obscured wedding procession, royals from a Madame Tussaud display, over which is placed a handmade bowl and tennis racket altered with a stocking and clay. The quotidian is heightened by ritual, only to be brought back down to earth.

The Haerizadeh brothers met Rahmanian in Tehran over their shared interest in bootlegged MTV and VIVA Polska VHS tapes. Years later, due to artistic censorship in Iran, the artists began living together in Dubai. Since 2009 they have worked to generate a near around-the-clock research based dialogue. Each artist, operating from their own unique set of aesthetics, share the use of wit and satire to recast ideas regarding power and activism, identity and desire. While instigating critique, the surrealist atmosphere of their exhibitions place experience and sensation at the core of their production.

This December, Rahmanian and the Haerizadeh brothers will exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Currently Kunsthalle Zürich is hosting an exhibition open till May 17 and recently, a monograph titled Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian, with an essay by Tina Kukielski, was released by Mousse Publishing. The artists will also participate in the upcoming 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane. They have staged two collaborative exhibitions at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai (2012, 2014), in addition to their solo exhibitions there. In 2014, the three artists were Robert Rauschenberg Foundation residents in Captiva, Florida. 

Ramin Haerizadeh (b. Tehran, 1975) lives and works in Dubai. He has exhibited internationally, notably in Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East, Saatchi Gallery, London (2009); Sharjah Biennial 10 (2011); and The Trees Set Forth to Seek for a King at the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem (2014). He has had three solo exhibitions at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai, and a solo exhibition at Gallery Nathalie Obadia, Paris, in 2012. His works are held in a number of collections including Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the British Museum, the Devi Art Foundation and the Rubell Family Collection.

Rokni Haerizadeh (b. Tehran, 1978) lives and works in Dubai. He has participated in numerous institutional exhibitions, notably the Carnegie International (2013); Here And Elsewhere at the New Museum, New York (2014); and the Sharjah Biennial (2011). His works are held in public and private collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, the British Museum, Tate Modern, the Devi Art Foundation, the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, and the Rubell Family Collection. 

Hesam Rahmanian (b. Knoxville, 1980) lives and works in Dubai. Rahmanian has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai (2013); Paradise Row, London (2011); and Traffic, Dubai (2010). He participated in a group show at the Royal College of Art, London, as one of eight finalists for the MOP CAP 2011 prize.

Callicoon Fine Arts is located at 49 Delancey Street between Forsyth and Eldridge Streets. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm. The nearest subway stops are the B and D trains at Grand Street and the F, J, M and Z trains at Delancey-Essex Street.

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