SHARGHZADEGI: Anahita Razmi | Solo Exhibition

The series New Silk Road Patterns is referring to the term of the Silk Road, an ancient trade route that connected China through the Middle East with Europe throughout the centuries. New Silk Road Patterns is taking this history as a point of reference for a project exploring specific present-day trade routes and exchanges between China, Iran/Persia and the "West" within a defined field. It is collecting low quality clothes found on various bazaars in Iran, which use Roman Letters as a design feature. A common, if not dominant, indication found on these clothes are spelling and grammatical mistakes in which words are often used in ways of patterns, letters are randomly combined, copy/paste text is used and known western clothes brands and logos are sampled and deconstructed. Following the production and sales paths of these textiles, the project New Silk Road Patterns is aiming to focus on what is happening to language within its deconstruction and recombination - what desires and wishes are expressed and what new cultural (dis)connections are established. The work is realized as a series of textile collages.