Early life
Rokni Haerizadeh was born in Tehran shortly before the start of the Iran-Iraq War. In a 2014 interview with Artforum, Haerizadeh described how his early experiences and questions about art were directly impacted by the war: "The TV programs at that time mostly depicted Islamic propaganda of the war, martyrs, and religion, but sometimes during the weekends they showed movies by directors such asCareer
Haerizadeh gained international attention during the mid-2000s for his paintings that brought together, on canvas, his observations about social or public gatherings in Iran – particularly weddings, religious festivals, funerals and banquets – and reveal the hedonistic, ritualised or violent sides of human nature that are buried in such spectacles. His diptych ‘Typical Iranian Wedding’ (2008) was exhibited in Unveiled: New Art From The Middle East at Saatchi Gallery, London, in 2009. This was followed by solo and group exhibitions in Paris, Dubai, New York and Istanbul. After 2009, Haerizadeh sought new definitions of painterly practice that could lift the medium off white canvas. In his on-going project of works on paper, Fictionville (2009–) Haerizadeh paints directly onto news photographs or stills taken from news footage. Taking its title from the 1968 play Shahr-E Qesseh (‘City of Tales’) by Bijan Mofid, Fictionville "places emphasis on the equalizing effect of news cycles" and attempts to show how the media equates violence and popular protest with entertainment, interspersed with the spectacles of state visits and official pomp. Transforming the ‘characters’ contained in these stills into human-animal hybrids or mocking clownish figures, and their surroundings into ludicrous landscapes, "It is via the act of deliberate deformation that the work is anchored in the hand and body of the artist, and finally that the public is rendered private."‘Moving Paintings’
Haerizadeh’s ‘Moving paintings’ are rotoscope video works composed of thousands of individually-painted stills. "A painting is usually received by the viewer and by the critic as a fixed and static object, with the entire process of generating the work far removed from the final piece. It’s important for me to add this element of ‘time’, to slow down the process and to make that process visible. In this way, the painting unfolds before your eyes and transforms gradually." ‘Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?’ (2011) was first exhibited atCollaborative
Haerizadeh has lived and worked with artists Ramin Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian in Dubai since 2009. As a culmination of their collaborations in Tehran, and the daily practice of a very precise discipline of living and working together in Dubai, the three artists staged their first collaborative exhibition, I Put It There You Name It, at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde in 2012, recreating the atmosphere of their house that set out to challenge the bare, white-walled exhibition format through painted floors, assemblage and collaboratively-created objects. "When you enter this house, it has a certain feeling, but that doesn’t come from the individual art on the walls, it’s only together – the assemblage of the room – that they make something, from the fruits we put on the table to the art that we live with." The three artists participated as a collective in the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s residency programme in 2014. Later that year they staged their second collaborative exhibition at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, ''The Exquisite Corpse Shall Drink The New Wine'', described in the press as a "a spectacular visual orgy".Stephanie Bailey, ‘Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian’, Artforum, Summer 201Collections
His works are held in public and private collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, the British Museum, Tate Modern, the Devi Art Foundation, the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection and the Rubell Family Collection. Rokni Haerizadeh 2014 ''One Torino, Shit and Die'', Palazzo Cavour, Torino, ItalyNotes & references
See also
''Chinese & Middle Eastern Contemporary Art Expert'' * Jean-Marc DecropExternal links