Washes of colour bleed into pools of pleasure. Delicately drawn and intricately articulated. Forms of flesh emerge from thread. The intersection of love and lust. Interjected by a moment of escape from a solitary echo-chamber. Lured by siren call of paint and brush – lifting the veil of separation. Transitioning from viewer to maker. Transgressing from one space to another. Liberation from the binding constructs of one’s own perception, into another dimension.
The moment Reza Farkhondeh put paint to one of Ghada Amer’s canvases he experienced a cathartic release. An instant free from his own practice. At the time she was away traveling,on seeing what he had done, she was initially shocked and upset. However, over time she warmed to the collective piece. Reza described the experience as “a meeting of two minds…You can create and also watch – you are a part of it, but also not.” The dynamic tension between presence and separation is integral to their collaborative practice.
Since the early 2000’s they have explored a relationship founded on trust and reciprocity. While working out of their studio in Harlemthey still maintain individual identities and autonomy while engaging in collaborative space. Navigating this can at times be challenging. However, overtime Ghada and Reza have carved tools to combat conflict. Combined authorship is at the crux of their decision-making process. The two artists flip a coin to see who will place their signature above the other’s and hold a secret ballot to decide which of the works are finished. If the outcome does not reveal two affirmative votes, then the piece is further worked into. These democratic systems are used as effective tools to avoid potential moments of tension and ensure a fair trade.
Their current show, Love is a Difficult Blue opened at Goodman’s Cape Town Gallery on the 18th of January and runs through to the 24th of February.The work explores notions of women and nature as both bearers of life – captured within an industrial patriarchal system of exploitation and oppression. Ghada enlists the female form as an archetypal icon – constructed from an amalgam of images. She uses these bodies, charged with notions of desire, to subvert stereotypes created by the white western male gaze. Intentionally provocative, the figures act as catalysts for conversation around the conventions of art.
Her use of thread and embroidery stemmed from a frustration around not having access to the ‘man’s world’ of painting. In an interview with Brett Littman she recalled that in 1991 she decided that, “in order for me to paint, I would need to come up with my own technique – which was using the traditional women’s technique of sewing.” Reza describes the forms as “mechanical woman” – rooted in reproduction and systematically flattened through the process of embroidery. This connects to the historical erasure of women and female artists in the western cannon – something Ghada experienced in the curriculum while studying at École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts à la Villa Arson in France.
This art school also happened to be the site at which they met, in 1988. At the time, Reza was completing a MFA in video and short film. Prior to his engagement with images of the natural world, he worked on a series called Made in China. The series of oil paintings depicted objects that appeared in Dollar Stores – all worth 99 cents. This was followed by a depressive episode – one which was broken by the conceptual freedom of working with landscapes and the catharsis of collaboration. “I guess what broke me out of this self-doubting period was when I painted on Ghada’s canvas in 2000.”
The two have unified their practice through a process of exchange. Ghada and Reza both begin in their mark-making working independently on individual canvases, once content, this is followed by exchange for the other to imprint upon. Reza remarked on the moments of voyeurism the shared studio enables – allowing brief windows into each other’s work and process. The pair however, are very careful not to disrupt the other’s practice in those early tentative moments – providing space for the work to evolve quietly.
Initially their collaboration was established purely as a visual juxtaposition of medium and style. However, this organically grew into integrated layers – with each artist playfully trespassing into the other’s domain. These moments of slippage occur when Reza traces the female form and Ghada raises her brush to his botanical subjects.
It is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed – Steve Lacy
