Movement
It’s a fold.
the before and after of drawing.
The moment of letter writing.
The empty paper and the untold stories it holds.
A fold:
beginning only because one takes the paper off the table,
Lets it become more than a surface.
Find your hand.
Iranian artist Yasi Alipour’s latest exhibition, “The Desire to Be a Corner (Listen),” showcases her unique approach to exploring systems of math, language, and history through intricately folded pieces of paper. Her artistic practice, which weaves drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, writing, and lectures, is grounded in her personal experiences as a SWANA Femme exploring the legacies and possibilities of her interrupted history and spaces of silence.
The exhibition features Alipour’s most recent series of works-on-paper, or folds as the artist refers to them. Alipour’s process is one of mark-making. Hand-folding paper results in intricate geometric pat- terns that, when held in relief on the surface, produce drawings. Deployed on varying surfaces—cyano- type and black pigment coated papers—Alipour’s folds generate echoing shapes, and recurring, unex- pected geometries. The cyanotype folds, awash in blue, are punctuated by unexpected passages of light, and watery, radiating forms.In this iteration of recent works, Alipour puts her focus on the ideas of interiority and different approaches to measuring time. The folds and creases trace the movement of the hand, capture the light, reveal geometries held within, expose the fibers of the paper, and reveal unexpected images.
“Alipour folds sheets of inkjet paper coated in black ink, or cyanotype paper, in careful geometric pat- terns to leave visible white creases.If Alipour’s technique were even slightly different, the pieces, both inkjets, could easily look overbearing or obsessive. But the labor-intensive precision with which her lines are placed is counterbalanced by the slightly frayed quality that folding paper actually produces, giving them instead the welcoming warmth of a fine textile. In the dreamy, beautiful cyanotypes, mean- while, sharp triangles cut through soft blue clouds but never lose their edge.” Will Heinrich, New York Times
Visitors are invited to explore Yasi’s unique approach to folding, geometric abstraction and came- raless photography, which has been praised for its ability to captivate viewers and spark meaningful conversations that go beyond logic and historical erasure and move towards new imaginaries to face issues of political and social justice.
