Amir Kamand, 'ALIENS vs GORILLAS' at Dastan's Basement, Tehran

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Installation view at Aliens vs Gorillas. All photos by Matin Jameie for Dastan.

Another exhibition that opened up in the last couple of weeks, after Covid restrictions were eased, at Dastan in Tehran is Aliens and Gorillas, a solo show by Amir Kamand, curated by Mamali Shafahi.

Amir Kamand, born in Tehran in 1960, is a sculptor now working mainly in polychrome wood. During his former career in plastic injection molding, metal machining and lathing, he was introduced to the use of wax and started to make sculptures with it, but soon decided that wood was a superior material.

His works - colourful, vibrant and frequently funny - combine elements drawn from his own experience (e.g. as a former skier and boxer) and subconscious with references to icons of both western and oriental pop culture, cinema, poetry and literature. They have featured in three Annual Outsider Exhibitions and at Balice Hertling in Paris, and more recently in a large-scale solo installation at the Palais de Tokyo, in Paris, as part of the summer blockbuster City Prince/sses in 2019, where he was one of a selection of artists, also including Reza and Mamali Shafahi, representing Tehran.

 

Kamand's iconography revolves around a core catalogue of recurring characters. Cheeky gorillas stick out their tongues while offering bouquets of flowers, teasing British guardsmen with bananas or taking selfies. Flying saucers, on flaming tripods of rocket thrust, disgorge little green men and other aliens. Gaudily-dressed skiers form human totems, or career down slopes, scarves trailing behind them on the wind; samurais battle sumo wrestlers; boxers, wrestlers and muscle-men carry the Lion and Sun, emblems of Iran, on their bulging biceps; soccer-players clash as they leap to head the ball; Mickey Mouse pumps iron… Together, Kamand’s works make up a multicoloured, multifaceted surrealist panorama blending autobiography, fantasy and science fiction.

For the Palais de Tokyo, Kamand started making larger-scale works combining multiple figures. As the current exhibition, Aliens vs Gorillas, shows, he is now working on creating more immersive, themed installations, developing the storytelling potential of his work.

This link is to a video on Vimeo, 'Alien', in which Amir Kamand talks about his work.

This link is to the Aliens vs Gorillas exhibition page on Dastan's website, which offers a 3D visit to the show, as well as an album of pictures.

This link is to Amir Kamand's artist's page on Dastan's website.

If it looks as if I've copied and pasted some of the texts from the site, instead of writing my own, in fact it's more the other way round: I was asked by the gallery in March last year to write something about Amir Kamand and his work, and since then they've incorporated my text into their own.



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