Sara Rahbar
Swarming
November 2, 2014–January 8, 2015
Carbon 12
Unit 37, Alserkal Avenue
Al Quoz 1
Dubai
T +971 4 340 6016
info [at] carbon12dubai.com
We are the self-fulfilling prophecy of the snake that eats its own tail, like the Ouroboros, of Greek mythology. Constantly all moving, like a horde of wasps, to one point all at once; protesting, screaming, fighting, hurrying to what end? Modern day slavery exists in the toil of work to make the materials that eventually contribute to our demise, we are lost in the collective hive of a machine that both sustains and destroys us.
Memory and ideological symbols are remixed with a very direct, physical syntax, while deconstructing personal history and the 21st-century human condition. The materials collected or found and body parts casted reverberate against the walls in protest. Careful titles lead us in poetic discourse with the objects in front of us, and lose us along the way. There is a direct dialogue between the work and us, reflecting on aspiration and tragedy, we are witness to the battlefields of mankind and human nature itself.
With geometric precision but organic arrangement, Rahbar combines wheels, batons, shoe forms, weapons, sickles, shovels, limbs, and other tools of once used trades, to create the workers eulogy. The sculptures act as sites of collection and remembrance. Once used and held by a human, the workers tools do not lose their humanity as the people who once used them lost their life, but stand as a representation for their sacrifice.
Bronze cast arms, legs, and heads contort, confessing doubt filled apprehensions. With their sometimes bound, awkward or painful gestures, the limbs ask questions we are often fearful to know the answer to or anxiously nudge the reluctant elephant in the room.
Like the man made tools of years past, minds, bodies, and selves, labor away until grooves are worn away, points are no longer sharp and pieces move no more. The endless competition for success and standards of living drives humanity’s lust for life to an early grave.
We are left with a demonstration of how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and challenges the binaries we continually reconstruct between Self and Other, between our individual desires and collective movement towards “progress.”
We are proud to announce the acquisition of two works from Sara Rahbar’s “Flag” series by the British Museum.
About the artist
Lives and works in New York, USA (b. 1976, Iran).
Rahbar pursued an interdisciplinary study program in New York and at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Her work ranges from photography to sculpture to installation and always stems from her personal experiences. While her initial practice explored more autobiographical ideas of national belonging originating from her Iranian/American history, her current practice has evolved to address issues of the human condition on a broader-scale. Rahbar has exhibited widely in art institutions including but not limited to The British Museum, Sharjah Art foundation, The Centre Pompidou and Mannheimer Kunstverein, and is included in the permanent collections of the Burger Collection, The Centre Pompidou and the Farook Collection amongst others.
