Shahryar Hatami | "Nazireh-Koshi": Parallel Circuit

Parallel Circuit announces “Nazireh-Koshi,” an exhibition by Shahryar Hatami starting Friday, November 3, and continuing through December 1, 2023. The show, marking his first collaboration with Dastan, is an installation of artworks and a spatial experience.

“Nazireh-Koshi” delves into three distinct ideas, techniques, and approaches that have significantly influenced Iranian art, especially the traditional schools of Persian Painting: Mimicry, Contradiction, and Similitude.

Nazireh-Sāzi (Mimicry) involves the reinterpretation of established artworks, with artists adapting the intellectual content of a reference piece to create an independent masterpiece. 

Naghizeh-Sāzi (Contradiction) introduces a critical perspective to reference works, often through satire.

Mossanna-Sāzi (Similitude) entails the meticulous reproduction of existing artworks, serving as a valuable educational tool for artists while preserving traditional artistic techniques. Similitude forms a bridge between artworks from different periods, emphasizing the enduring nature of creative expression.

In addition to these, Hatami utilizes a technique known as Abri-Sāzi (Marbling), which was often used to create backgrounds/backdrops as canvases for the work of calligraphers, illumination artists, or cover makers. Traditionally, this technique involves painting with water-based colors on a glaze and transferring it to paper, allowing for imaginative and serendipitous creations that transcend the boundaries of reality. 

Shahryar Hatami (b. 1983, Tehran) is an artist and researcher in Tehran. His practice spans several media and approaches, often incorporating his studies in historical texts, disciplines, techniques, and perspectives into paintings, installations, and setups that augment the viewer’s experience of the presented material. According to Hatami, these installations “mix painting and sculpture with mechanical machines that question the nature of painting and sometimes go against the nature of creation and even ruin it,” aiming to “challenge observation and visual perception.” Hatami’s work has been featured in seven solo exhibitions, including a 2016 show curated by Michel Dewilde in Bruges, as well as many group shows around the world. Most recently, he presented his years-in-the-making research project, “The Concealed over the Revealed,” at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (2021).