Stone is dominant and present but not in the way we have come to expect, as hard and definite. We encounter stone in a phase of transformation, as broken and fragmented, and this requires from us a new attitude of repair and restoration.
In his works, Mojtaba Amini has developed a language of design that emerges from the properties of the materials he uses. On the one hand, the materials in his works draw attention to themselves, as they are; on the other, the materials act in his works, determining and shaping form and thereby attaining meaningful levels of authorship. For example, the artist uses dried animal skin to address death or violence. In this setting, the material aligns directly with the content; it is almost the content itself. Much of the material he uses is identifiable as unique to the artist’s home region and thus also speaks of this region’s culture and history. For example, turquoise is mined extensively in the city of Neyshabur and is thus representative of the city’s historical importance and economic value. Upon examining Amini’s work, we further see that stone is depicted in its fragmentary and plural form, and out of the old meanings of stone a new set of connotations begin to surface.
According to the artist, two significant art projects marked his first period of work. Both works are characterized by their use of fragmented stones as the central material. The first project, “تهران ۸۸” (Tehran 88), came into being in 2009. This work is a room-adaptive floor installation consisting of around seven hundred small stones found in Tehran. These are stones that street protesters had, at the time, used to defend themselves. Some nine years later, the second project, “ظل” (Zel: Arabic word for shadow), was created, one in which around five hundred unprocessed pieces of mineral turquoise are employed. It is this work that is the focus of the current exhibition, Dear Fractured Stones.
Complex in form and in its overall realization, ظل (Zel) has the subtitle He who stood in the dark so that he could see those in the light more clearly.
In its essence, this project addresses the disintegration of bodies, both human and material. The work is divided into nine sections, each of which has a separate title, and tells the story of a turquoise miner from Neyshabur who lives and works in darkness all his life, and who, nevertheless, cannot reach anything but the most basic standard of living. According to the artist, the work recalls the real-life story of his great-uncle. READ MORE…
_ Baharak Omidfard
Sometimes he was seen here that he had been coming to this dyeing shop for 50 years, he was blackening his handkerchief and coat that was frazzling in the sunlight … in the dyeing shop of Golestan alley. From this black shop that came out, he would go to the village and crawl into the black hole of the mine. The last time he came to town, he had given his denture to Dr. Barati to have it repaired. He no longer went to the doctor to collect it. The doctor knew he was dead. The doctor always joked that I had a small cemetery on the wall of my office.
گاهی همینجا دیده می شد ۵۰ سالی می شد که به این رنگرزی می آمد, دستار و کت اش را که زیر نور آفتاب بور می … را در دکان رنگرزی کوی گلستان سیاه میکرد. از این دکان سیاه که بیرون می آمد به ده بالا میرفت و به درون سوراخ سیاه معدن میخزید. آخرین باری که به شهر آمده بود دندان مصنوعی اش را به دکتر براتی داده بود تا تعمیرش کند دیگر برای بردن دندانش سراغ دکتر نرفت. دکتر میدانست که او مرده است دکتر همیشه به شوخی می گفت من گورستان کوچکی روی دیوار مطب ام دارم.
The owner of the plot of land, in the middle of which was a small sand dune, did not have the right to plow his land after the implementation of the desertification plan and preventing soil erosion. A landowner with lots of holes and rat nests.
مالک قطعه زمینی که تپه ماسه ای کوچکی وسط زمینش بود، بعد از اجرا شدن طرح بیابان زدایی و جلوگیری از فرسایش خاک حق شخم زدن در زمینش را نداشت. مالک زمینی با سوراخ های فراوان و لانه موشها.
It does not matter which village he was from. Being at the top or lower settlement, after the announcement of the turquoise mine as the protected mountain, is no different. They have to wait for the rain. An expectation on the one hand is anxiety; If the rain brings more dirt, stones, and turquoise than filling their sieves, not only their livelihood but also their lives are destroyed. They will have to fill the bowl with sand again.
فرقی نمی کند اهل کدام ده بود. بالا و پایین بودن آبادی، بعد از اعلام معدن فیروزه به کوه محافظت شده دیگری توفیری ندارد. باید منتظر باران بمانند. انتظاری که یک سوی آن اضطراب است؛ باران اگر بیش از پر کردن الک هایشان خاک و سنگ و فیروزه بیاورد، رزق و روزی که هیچ روزگارشان هم بر آب می شود.دوباره کاسه را باید از ماسه پر کنند.
