Hamid Yaraghchi - Let The Wound Lie Open
It took me a while to see all the skulls. But I was in a good mood, and I hadn’t researched the show in advance. Often what you see is influenced by your circumstances when you see it, even when there’s an uncomfortable truth staring straight back at you. The person next to me was also in a good mood, commenting “I like the spring colours” while studying a faceless woman cradling a deflating man with a massive gash in his chest.
Things definitely aren’t quite right in these works, but they’re not quite disturbing enough to turn you away. A better word might be uncomfortable. In spite of severed appendages and obvious allusions to death, it’s never gruesome. But like a movie that’s been carefully edited to avoid an 18 / R rating, the implications are obvious if you know what to look for.
Some of the nightmares appear to be a simple physical abrasion of the canvas. One could easily assume these to be the stroke of a wayward brush or an intentional overpaint from a vandal. Other elements are obvious such as the severed head, held down by a foot, which could have come from any number of headless torsos that repeat throughout the works.
Reflecting back to that “spring colours” comment, flowers and foliage fill many of the canvasses. You’ll see the bright blue sea and a recurring prevalence of pink. I found myself more attuned to the muted greys, greens and browns that often accompany the distinct stench of autumnal decay.
The large works, all around 1.5 x 2metres in size, are filled with so much clutter and chaos that it’s easy to miss the uncomfortable bits. Like I did with ‘Demons Pool’, with a grotto-like scene I thought was evoking mythological nymphs until I leaned in for a closer look at the rocks. The smaller works take a different approach. Tightly cropped, sometimes obscure angles, make it impossible to un-see the bodies, or what I assume are body parts from what look to be crime scene photos. I nicknamed one particular hang ‘The CSI Wall’.
I spoke with the artist at the opening about the work, and how in life there is often uncomfortable aspects. You can choose to focus on them, or you can look at the pretty pieces all around the edges. These are the kinds of paintings that remind me that how we see art, and not just why, is often more illuminating than the art itself.
At Beers (@beerslondon) until 18 Feb
Visit hamidyaraghchi.com or follow @hamid.yaraghchi on Instagram for more info about the artist