Hoda Kashiha | "I'm Here, I'm not Here": Basel Social Club 2023

Dastan is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming edition of Basel Social Club 2023, with a solo presentation of works by Hoda Kashiha titled “I’m Here, I’m not Here.” The event will be open to the public from June 11, 2023, through June 18, 2023. This will be Dastan’s first presentation at Basel Social Club.

“I’m Here, I’m not Here” is a series of works that delves into binary duos: the nuanced interplay between being and non-being, presence and absence, certainty and doubt within the human experience.  The series comprises five canvases: three paintings, a diptych, and a mixed media piece (of acrylic, modeling paste, and plexiglass on canvas), each capturing a walking figure in a dual state of being and simultaneously not. Bold and explicit strokes overlay the figures with a vivid, disruptive red or an immersive black. Sometimes the figure is distorted. 

In the final painting, this duality becomes more playful: the figure appears to have been cut out from paper, and the piece depicts the figure and the remaining parts of the paper. With this collage-like process of marking and censoring the painted image, the artist explores the idea of a ‘power’ covering over ‘the censored material’ and wonders what happens when something is lost only in appearance while being rendered or denoted as non-existent by the power.

The series symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and death through deliberate repetition. It also prompts contemplation on humanity's ability to acknowledge the existence of the unseen.

Hoda Kashiha (b. 1986, Tehran, Iran) is a graduate of Painting from the University of Tehran (BA, 2009) and Boston University (MFA, 2014).

Hoda Kashiha’s work has been extensively exhibited in recent years, including in five solo shows (most recently at Passerelle Centre d’art Contemporain, Brest, France, 2022). Kashiha’s work has frequently been part of Dastan’s art fair presentations, including at FIAC 2021 and LISTE 2020. 

Works of Hoda Kashiha bounce between everyday life and the imagery she sets out to produce. Through a non-linear narrative, dark humor, and mythological, religious, and modern icons, the artist meets with difficult moments in her personal and political life. Drawing references ranging "from Malevich to Instagram," she composes her fragmented narratives. Kashiha uses digital tools to draw work and then construct it on canvas, layer upon layer. This way of fragmenting motifs nevertheless deals with major contemporary subjects found everywhere, such as gender issues.

The Basel Social Club is a non-profit association founded in 2022. The project was initiated by founding board members Robbie Fitzpatrick, Dominik Müller, Yael Salomonowitz, Hannah Weinberger, and former member Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth. The 2023 edition is realized together with Julia Cellarius, Hugo Bausch Belbachir, Geraldine Belmont, Maya Coline Vidgrain, Jörg Duschmalé, Tuula Rasmussen, Christine Rösch, Claire Vannaxay, Thomas Villemin. Beatrice Hatebur and Claudia Müller have since joined the board of the association.