22 1/2 x 30 3/4 x 3/4 in
Monika Grabuschnigg's sculptural works and drawings explore the dialectics of analog and virtual realities, and the effects of digitality on the physical body and our self-awareness. Grabuschnigg’s works allude to an intangible cyber sphere, and explores intimate relationships through ceramic, a historically charged material, to observe the shift from a physically, personally experienced world into virtual space.
The figures she portrays in both two and three dimensional media are sumptuous in form, and are contradictory to the smooth, flat surface of the phone screen. Her visceral use of clay acts as a material opposition to the incorporeal nature of these interpersonal connections. Both hers and Amir Khojasteh’s experimentation with form define their work - where Grabuschnigg uses expressive shape to depict bodies devoid of physicality, Khojasteh works with dynamic swathes of paint and slight impasto to obscure distinguishing features of notorious politicians.
Amir Khojasteh’s works are moved by impactful, political events that affect the lives of people globally. In simultaneously employing dark humour and fantasy within his paintings of vaguely depicted dictators, he distorts sinister notions of fear and “fear-maker”. Akin to the nature of political propaganda, Khojasteh’s works teeter on the cusp of recognition; where, with his attentive, painterly manipulation of the physical form, he treads the delicate line between the fabrication of candidness, and unsettling ambiguity.
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