Body is All

Sogol Kashani was born in Tehran in 1979. She has BA in Fashion and Textile Design from the University of Science and Culture.
“Body is All” is her first collaboration with INJA Gallery and her second solo show. She has participated in more than ten group exhibitions and has experience in curating exhibitions, making documentary films and has been a guest of the Cite Internationale des Arts Residence in Paris.

Sogol is a figurative painter who chooses sociopolitical themes and her medium of choice is pencil on large canvases. She also sketches with ink using bold and free brushstrokes.

In this second exhibition, Sogol exhibits two collections of her work together, which she created over the past two years. She is an artist whose work takes form from her artistic lifestyle and personal tastes. She confronts her subject matter at one point and ends it at another.

Concerning this Sogol says, “I cannot repeat my subject matters, it is as if they end for me at one point since I myself am always changing. Initially the “Body Is All” series might seem to be abstract while in fact it is the forms of my own body and figure. In the same manner, the cypress in “What ever happened to cypress?” are bodies and figures. In our culture and many other cultures, the cypress is a symbol of freedom and life. it is evergreen, the leaves do not fall and it withstands cold and arid climates.
Apart from my own interest in architecture the presence of geometric forms in this body of works has root in the juxtaposition of cypress with buildings which are palaces and Persian gardens in Persian miniature.

The commonality of these two collections side by side, is an indirect comment on the body.”

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Body Is All
[A play in three acts]

• First Act: Land of Restless Flowers

red flowers / red bodies / slow / red deserts / red fumes / wild / poisoned / women / men / silky / red / poisonous / red hooves / red ears / quadruped / slumber / red / poisonous / bodies / sleepwalking / red / numb / breathe in poison /

(This act is censored and never shown)

• Second Act: What Ever Happened to Cypress?

green / fine / pleasant /
it gets bitter /
days / nights / get hot / get cold / days / nights / red / dark / misery / days / nights / misery pours /

• Third Act: Body Is All

figure / body / something like me / layout of a human / animal or both / living or bereft of life / body not groomed / body is all / being / time / wears away / scrapes / digs / body hardens / turns to stone / stone /
body turns into an object /
a knife / a saw / sharp / it squeezes my heart / digs my heart / tearing it apart / pain / cut / torn / torn / a severe blow / a wound without bleeding / its sharpness cuts / my heart / my body / my mind / tears my smooth thoughts apart / my body / by its blows / it rips by the sharpness of its blows / tears / tears apart / my body / it hurts / doesn’t bleed / makes a scraping sound / it cuts / I hear the scraping sound of cutting / the scraping sound of me being cut / I hear the scraping / it cuts / tears me apart / tears by tears / part by part / torn pieces of me / pieces of my mind / my body / pieces of my soul / will not come together / far from one another / separate / separated / will not come together / pieces of my body /

Sogol Kashani
Autumn 2020