Artist: Helia Chitsazan

October 12–December 22, 2024

Helia Chitsazan, *The Concreted* (part), 2024. Oil, Oil stick and oil pastel on canvas, 36 x 72 inches ©Helia Chitsazan, courtesy of Fou Gallery

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“The space between real and unreal gets tighter.

Was the dream I dreamt more real,

or is it me, lying here, staring at the corner of the wall?”

- Helia Chitsazan

(New York—October 12, 2024) Fou Gallery is pleased to present “Forces of Change and Memory” introducing new works by the artist Helia Chitsazan. This marks the second solo exhibition by the artist, coinciding with Fou Gallery's relocation to a new space. In this new setting, New York-based Iranian artist Helia Chitsazan invites us to explore the interplay between the dynamic forces of change and the enduring power of memory. Nina Chkareuli-Mdivani (she/her), a Georgian-born and New York-based curator, writer, and researcher, has been invited to curate this exhibition.

Memory and change often oppose one another, winds of change sweep away the time and the stasis it embodies. Chitsazan’s personal story of a recent immigrant trying to carve out an individual identity in the larger cultural and artistic American wilderness is related to both. And because memory takes on metaphoric meanings and is subjective by definition Chitsazan shows us the visual devices are most consequential to her. Breakdown of the third wall between an actor and the audience, masks as stand-ins for various identities, and micro-expressions as attempts to pin down what is slipping away – are all relevant to the artist, and characteristic of her works.

As Chitsazan comes from Tehran where she was born and raised, her works allow us to reflect upon the idea of constructed knowledge and how it shadows our references. In the Cartesian paradigm that underlies the western worldview, our perception of the world is what allows us to assert the reality of our existence. Yet, this western concept discounts all other ways of looking and seeing. We can’t understand a country as complex as Iran without understanding that political censorship and economic decline, public trials against independent cinematographers and human rights activists, public executions, and mass exodus of the population from the country — is the reality in which Iran has existed for the last generations. Thinking about this country and looking at the art without taking these political elements is quite esoteric. Chitsazan addresses the internal unrest in the country in a symbolic, indirect way by investigating stasis, distortions, and mirrors while connecting them to the questions of individuality. The artist expresses the ambivalence of identity questions for younger Iranian women as they try to forge new routes for independence within a society deeply rooted in traditional gender and class roles.

Chitsazan creates an off-modern route for Iranian visual tradition using a definition first emphasized by cultural theorist Svetlana Boym. According to Boym off-modern recovers unforeseen pasts and ventures into the side alleys of modern history, opening into the modernity of “what if” and not only modernization as it is. Iranian Saqqakhana movement of 1960-1970s could be understood within the context of western modernism, but its references to Islam, the Old Testament, Zoroastrianism, and abstraction made it endemic and site-specific to Iran. Not necessarily positioning herself as the successor of this movement, Chitsazan understands and channels its transient quality of being an Iranian artist within the western art discourse. The Fou Gallery is now interspersed with reflective surfaces so that viewers can stop for a minute and observe themselves, albeit in a distorted manner. Only after confronting this distortion, we observe first-hand how western perception influences the culture.

*The press release is prepared based on an essay by Nina Chkareuli-Mdivani.

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Artist

Helia Chitsazan (b. 1995, Tehran, Iran) Having earned her BFA in Painting from the Art University of Tehran in 2018, Helia Chitsazan relocated to New York City and obtained an MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 2023. Chitsazan's artwork has been showcased in various painting festivals in Iran and she participated in group shows at New Collectors Gallery (New York, 2021), Thierry Goldberg Gallery (New York, 2023), Pablo’s Birthday Gallery (New York, 2023), and LAbeast gallery (Los Angeles, 2023). She was awarded the 1st painting grant from Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Montreal, Canada). Chitsazan’s first solo show at Fou Gallery (2023) signifies the debut of her artistic career.

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Curator

Nina Chkareuli-Mdivani (she/her) is a Georgian-born and New York-based curator, writer, and researcher. She holds undergraduate degrees in International Relations and Gender Studies from Tbilisi State University and Mount Holyoke College, and a graduate degree in Museum Studies from the City University of New York. Chkareuli-Mdivani has contributed reviews, essays, and interviews to e-flux, Hyperallergic, Flash Art International, Artforum, MoMa.post, The Brooklyn Rail, The Arts Newspaper, Whitehot Magazine, Berlin Art Link, and among others. Her first book King is Female was published by Wienand Verlag (Berlin) in 2018. Her research involves the intersection of art history, museum, and decolonization studies focusing on totalitarian art and trauma theory. She has curated over ten exhibitions in New York, Germany, Latvia, and Georgia.