Originally from Iran, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian have adopted the United Arab Emirates as their home. This trio of artists is known for immersive, surreal projects, performances, paintings, and animations, and has exhibited internationally at multiple biennials and major museums (including the Liverpool, Sydney, and Toronto biennials, and Kunsthalle Zurich, ICA Boston, MACBA Barcelona, and a forthcoming project at the Hayward Gallery, London). Comprising several major new bodies of work, Parthenogenesis marks the trio’s first solo show at a UAE institution.
Speaking together about their practice, the artists said: “Our work is about generosity and celebration, to embrace other people as an answer to the challenges of the world in which we all live. In a way, this is about decentering yourself, allowing a hollowness to make space to appreciate others.”
That relationship to others plays a major part in the exhibition, which includes a “call and response” with those making poetry, video, and imagined architecture — always serving an inception (a parthenogenesis) of new artwork. The works in this exhibition were made with the participation of Homa Farley, Lamya Gargash, Nazli Ghassemi, Christopher Lord, Minnie McIntyre, Mohammed Rahis Mollah, Sara Saghari, Jaleh Shaditalab, and the refugees and asylum seekers of the Danish Red Cross project in Traveling with Art at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark). Their collaborators on several of the projects include Vahid Davar, Kiori Kawai, Mandana Mohit, and Pirouz Taji.
In this way, the trio’s intention is to create a landscape in the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery that allows visitors to trace how an artwork grows itself through an artist’s relationships with others. Parthenogenesis is a testament to the artists’ 13 years of living and working together in Dubai, creating a landscape and tapestry of continuously evolving ideas and dialogues with collaborators, artists, and visitors to their home. It offers a deeper insight into their practice rooted in ideas of transformation, play, and collaboration.
For more information, please visit nyuad-artgallery.org.
