Ila Firouzabadi | "Studies for the Fountains": Dastan's Basement

Dastan is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Ila Firouzabadi, titled “Studies for the Fountains.” The exhibition will open on Friday, June 12, 2020, and will be on display for public viewing until July 3. Her first solo show in Dastan, this exhibition features pencil drawings on paper mounted on aluminium plates along with mixed-media, three-dimensional installations. 

Ila Firouzabadi (b. 1980, Tehran) studied Graphic Design in the Faculty of Art and Architecture (Azad University, Tehran) before moving to Paris where she continued her education at University Marc Bloch (Strasbourg, France) and School of Decorative Arts (Strasbourg, France). Currently living and working in Montreal, Ila has completed several residencies around the world, most notably Tabakalera (Saint Sebastian, Spain) and Servais Family Collection and Residency (Brusseles, Belgium). Her works have also been featured in numerous exhibitions like Keramikmuseum and Kuenstlerkreis Ortenau Gallery (Germany ,2009), Musée Théodore Deck and Espace Apollonia (France ,2010), OBORO Art Center (Canada ,2013).

Ila Firouzabadi started doing research and working on “Studies for the Fountains” in 2018. She considers the series “a never-ending project” in which the recurrence of forms and images is “a reflection of a spiral movement connecting the links within a chain with no definite point of closure.” Comprised of materials as diverse as solid resin spliced with fragile ceramic and delicately repeated pencil lines planted on casting aluminium, the artworks in this series appear as synthetic organisms combining the mechanical with the organic. The integration of the mechanic and organic structures marks a recurring connection between contrasting qualities inherent within the works. This juxtaposition and repetition of differing elements is, as the artists states, “a reference to the eternal return of the same.”