Form and Formation:; The Drawings of Azadeh Sahraeian
January 19, 2019 – March 3rd, 2019 in the Passage Gallery
Opening January 19th, 2019 2-4PM
My artistic practice is more focused on the formation process rather than the form itself; hence, my drawings represent the process of genesis and growth; the lines grow from points that have been set on motion, as the plant grows from its seed. Each drawing begins with a single element, a “center,” and continues with duplication process in which strong centers evolve in levels of scale, pronounced boundaries and alternative repetition.
Emerging new centers continue till the whole drawing evolves. In this process there is a reciprocal insight between centers and the whole; as one finds ways to better understand the centers, the whole becomes better defined and the clarity of the whole makes centers more clear and yet they say more about the whole. Thus, my meticulous art works come along with a gradual formation in level of details. They are harmonious whole yet developed step-by-step; organic yet abstract; unpredictable yet mathematical; ordered yet chaotic; still yet fluxing. There is a continuous mutation in the process of emerging; an ongoing dialogue between formation and deformation in which my drawings unfold only a spectrum of it.
As an architect and artist I like to create living things; not biologically alive but things that have a perceptible degree of life. Observing natural and man-made patterns and complex systems enable me to define my method in art. Hence, instead of replicating finished forms that are already settled, whether as images in the mind or as objects in the world I’d rather follow the order of these natural and artificial structures in order to generate my artworks based on their properties and characteristics.
Biography
Azadeh Sahraeian was born in Omidiyeh, Iran and got her M.A. in architecture from Azad university of Shiraz.
Her artwork which remains strongly rooted in design, focuses on the relationship between formation, growth and time. Being influenced by the architect and philosopher, Christopher Alexander, she approaches design as the art of creating living entities in different disciplines.
Azadeh and her husband, Arash, have received several awards for their unique approach in architectural designs. Their works and papers have been published in many magazines including IKE conference in Las Vegas and Shiraz contemporary architects annual book.
In 2012, while working for a prestigious architectural firm in Shiraz, Iran, she decided to examine her knowledge in a different medium, meticulous ink drawing on paper. Azadeh and her husband moved to the United States in 2013 and they are living in North Bethesda, Maryland.