Dastan is pleased to announce “Eisegesis: Act I”, a presentation by Navid Azimi Sajadi at Electric Room. The installation will be open to public view from August 31 to September 5, 2018. The current work is the first part of a three-act project that will follow later this year at Kandovan (Pejman Foundation).
Appearing to the viewer in a process of familiarization and de-familiarization, the installation is based on a reading of “ambivalence” that has been transformed to become a shape that can be demystified only by taking into account one’s presuppositions —in other words, the viewer is to “read into” the work, rather than extract meaning from it in an objective manner.
Grounded in his studies on mythology, cultural history and biblical literature, Navid Azimi Sajadi’s reading of “ambivalence” does not merely reflect a psychological state, but aims to be an aggregation of all possible states. As any provided message or symbol will entail in a derived meaning, the artist has sought not to give away any clues.
The “ambivalence” is both a reference to the way a culture is perceived and interpreted and the layeredness of the experience of reading. The challenge of presenting one interpretation as “truth” or the right reading is one of the main concerns in Navid Azimi Sajadi’s “Eisegesis: Act I”. In the installation, forms change shape to become a dark void that acts like a container of energies, open to be read, explored and discovered.