{"id":647058,"date":"2026-08-20T10:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/647058\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T10:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:17:23","slug":"art-translated-from-iran-to-l-a-in-new-exhibit-at-the-brick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/647058\/","title":{"rendered":"Art translated from Iran to L.A. in new exhibit at the Brick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The group exhibition \u201cTo Share a Stomach\u201d is a bit like the children\u2019s game Telephone, in which a phrase, whispered from person to person, inevitably comes out a bit garbled. Urgently conceived by curator Aram Moshayedi in March, on the heels of the latest U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, it features works envisioned by 25 Iranian artists that were fabricated with varying degrees of collaboration by 24 counterparts here in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Hampered by significant internet blackouts, displacements and the loss of studios and artwork in Iran, as well as an extremely compressed timeline (just five months), the results are understandably rangy and uneven. Yet the show, now on view at the Brick through Sept. 19, is an achingly beautiful meditation on the difficulty of communication and the shared goodwill that intermittently, imperfectly, surmounts it.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Sina Ghadaksaz and John Ziqiang Wu, \u201cWhat the Clouds Remember and the Mountains Forget,\u201d 2026; Carmen Argote, \u201cAram\u2019s sneakers: Mount Eynali,\u201d August 6, 8\u20131030p.m., 2026; Mohammadreza Jahanshir, \u201cGlory \/ 50904020,\u201d 2026; Maryam Lashkari, Hodjat Salimi, and Oscar Tuazon, \u201cCan You S…?,\u201d 2026; Kelly Akashi and Mimi Amini with David Gutierrez, Matt Rademacher and Kazuki Takizawa, \u201cThe Anatomy of a Postponed Intent: The Glass Blade,\u201d 2026; Fatemeh Kazemi and Olivia Mole, \u201cThe Conference of the Birds,\u201d 2026, can be seen in the exhibition \u201cTo Share a Stomach,\u201d at the Brick in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Ruben Diaz 2026)<\/p>\n

None of the works address the recent bombardments directly, although the precarious context of ongoing threat, instability and struggle can be felt in almost all of them. Ducking into Maryam Lashkari, Hodjat Salimi and Oscar Tuazon\u2019s interactive sculpture \u2014 an enormous cardboard tube lying on its side \u2014 feels like entering a culvert or a bomb shelter. Inside, one lies on a crude bed of felt blankets and dons a set of headphones; the sounds of jet planes, a party, conversations and emergency sirens are interspersed with an imperious voice reading a guided meditation on how to be present in one\u2019s body during a bombing. The harsh realities of war are woven into the textures of everyday life, warping and fraying into something absurd. Viewers may scan a QR code for their own copy of the audio track, which deteriorates in sound quality with every download.<\/p>\n

Slow disintegration also appears in a triptych of videos by Ismail Ghanbari (facilitated by Tala Madani but not credited as a collaboration). In the largest central one, we see Ghanbari holding two nearly destroyed boxing gloves as he explains how he trained so intensely for a performance in which he boxed for five hours that the gloves began to fall apart. Their tattered remnants, barely held together with patches and stitching, are poignant metaphors for a battered will that keeps fighting even as protections wear thin.<\/p>\n

Vulnerability and violence also co-exist in Mimi Amini and Kelly Akashi\u2019s collaboration: a sword made of clear glass. Hanging from the rafters, the tip of its blade points down ominously over viewers\u2019 heads, emphasizing both the danger of the weapon and its fragility. If it fell, would it pierce one\u2019s skull or shatter into bits? It exists suspended between latent violence and the risk of its own annihilation.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Fatemeh Kazemi and Olivia Mole, \u201cThe Conference of the Birds,\u201d 2026; Fatemeh Kazemi, \u201cWhat the Birds Did Not Tell Upon Their Return,\u201d 2026, in the exhibit, \u201cTo Share a Stomach,\u201d at the Brick in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Ruben Diaz 2026)<\/p>\n

These impressions are responses to the works as they exist in the gallery, but the show has another layer, revealed in an accompanying booklet that reproduces the initial emails or texts from the Iranian artists to the curator. Interwoven with stories of life during wartime are proposals or instructions, allowing viewers to assess for themselves how much the works in the gallery reflect the artists\u2019 original ideas. For example, the tube-bunker was initially envisioned as a \u201ccompletely dark space\u201d twinkling with a variety of malfunctioning countdown clocks. Ghanbari\u2019s video appears in lieu of the gloves themselves, and Amini\u2019s original digital rendering of the glass sword is much more detailed and intricate than the comparatively \u201clow-res\u201d version on view.<\/p>\n

If we think of an artwork as an intentional, carefully wrought creation that comes directly from an artist, what are we to make of these incomplete, unfaithful interpretations? I was reminded of the reality TV show \u201cNailed It!,\u201d in which amateur bakers fail spectacularly to reproduce complex cakes. I cackle at the distance between perfection and utter collapse, but I also feel a pang of tenderness: I am moved by their effort.<\/p>\n

Artists, of course, are no strangers to things not going to plan. While the exhibit is enabled by the entwined ubiquity of the English language and the internet, the artists know these technologies aren\u2019t transparent. Most of the Iranian artists left their instructions generously open-ended, inviting the interpretations and transmutations of their U.S. peers. In some cases, it seems the partners did not continue the conversation; whether due to disagreement, bombardment or government-imposed internet blackouts (described to chilling effect in an essay by Negar Karimkhani) is unclear. The U.S. artists were constrained by a very compressed timeline (and presumably budget and space) to fabricate and display the works. Even without these limitations, to hand over one\u2019s vision to someone else, and conversely, to shoulder the responsibility for realizing it are both touching acts of trust.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Ali Ansari and Ren\u00e9e Petropoulos, \u201cBetween Entries\u201d, 2026; Salman Khoshroo and Daid Roy, \u201cDefensive Wall,\u201d 2026; Ismail Ghanbari, \u201cProxy (Neyabati) 1,\u201d \u201cProxy (Neyabati) 2,\u201d \u201cProxy (Neyabati) 3,\u201d 2026, on view as part of the exhibition, \u201cTo Share a Stomach,\u201d at the Brick in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Ruben Diaz 2026)<\/p>\n

Viewers must exert themselves a little too. Understanding who is responsible for what work and to what degree requires consulting a floor plan, a checklist and the booklet: an awkward juggling act that would have been eased by some wall labels. Still, as I shuffled papers, I became part of the buffering, incomplete chain of communication. As Amini wrote of the glass blade, \u201cthe perfection of this form is preserved only with the mental space shared between the conceptualizing artist and the interpreting artist.\u201d I venture to add the viewer to that space, thinking of Yoko Ono\u2019s instruction artworks (across town at the Broad) which short-circuit any physical acts of making to take shape only in our minds.<\/p>\n

This kind of intimacy \u2014 thinking, envisioning, constructing together \u2014 is rare when it comes to American intersections with Iran. I was previously unfamiliar with the Iranian artists in the show, and I\u2019m sure I missed many cultural and linguistic references in their works. My focus on pieces evoking violence predictably reflects my limited knowledge of Iran as other than a locus of U.S. antagonism (the result of a different information blackout).<\/p>\n

Yet, \u201cTo Share a Stomach\u201d lays down \u2014 gingerly, gently \u2014 an alternate connective thread, spun from a mutual recognition of fallibility. In his introductory essay, curator Moshayedi reveals that the show\u2019s title is his mistranslation of the Farsi word for \u201cempathy.\u201d (The correct translation is \u201cto share a heart.\u201d) He goes on to confess that after many years\u2019 study, he finally gave up on learning the language. We will never understand each other perfectly; I am still moved by the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group exhibition \u201cTo Share a Stomach\u201d is a bit like the children\u2019s game Telephone, in which a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[18890,365,362,363,364,54933,39929,273770,13547,273769,366,18,117,19,18929,17,273768,273767,273766,273771,3070,133652,23951,80],"class_list":["post-647058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-artist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-artwork","tag-bit","tag-boxing-glove","tag-collaboration","tag-dark-space","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-ismail-ghanbari","tag-mimi-amini","tag-powerful-show","tag-significant-internet-blackout","tag-u-s","tag-viewer","tag-violence","tag-work"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117127325097031387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}