Dastan is proud to announce the recent acquisition of Homa Delvaray’s “Kolsum Naneh” (2012) by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
The hand-embroidered and silkscreen-printed fabric book was recently displayed in Dastan's Booth at Frieze LA 2024 and previously in "Alternating Currents" a group exhibition in Parallel Circuit, June 2021, Tehran, Iran.
Following her explorations of superstitious beliefs and “Kitábi Kulśum Naneh”, an 18th-century satirical book on superstition, Homa reimagines a ritual described in the book. In the ritual, the area around a pregnant woman is marked and territorialized using a sharp sword to keep diseases and evil spirits away.
In the artist’s view, the fact that in the process of modernization, superstitious beliefs have gone through an evolution that appropriates them for every era creates a vicious cycle. Moreover, she maintains that such ideas and belief systems will inevitably prevail and that neither force nor reason can fight them. In her remake of the ‘ritual’, the midwife, who is in charge of setting the perimeters, is possessed by the same forces she is trying to fend off, becoming herself a weapon threatening the pregnant woman, alluding to the futile conflict.
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of nearly 152,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
For more information, click here.
