Amidst

Solo Exhibition By Jaleh Akbari25 December 2020 to 8 January 2021

Jaleh Akbari was born in Shiraz in 1988 and holds a degree in Painting from the Art University of Semnan.

‘Amidst’ is Jaleh’s first collaboration with INJA Gallery, and also her first solo exhibition. She has already taken part in more than 15 group exhibitions.

Jaleh is an artist who is directly influenced by her surroundings, showing this effect not through exact representation but rather with her own personal interpretations. Since last year, when she decided to begin work on this collection, she was forced to spend long periods of time in solitude, due to the conditions of the pandemic, having never experienced this volume of silence and isolation before. Her choice of colors was also completely spontaneous, even instinctive.

The presence of fountains in Jaleh’s works is due to the joy and visual pleasure their form provided her with. She was initially drawn to one such image she had seen and photographed in Tehran’s City Park.

Jaleh states, “The sight of ponds and fountains in the middle of parks and city squares has always brought me great joy. But this joy bears a repetitiveness and monotony which was similar to what I was experiencing those days. It was a process that would constantly repeat itself, with no change whatsoever, while also maintaining its positive emotional impact.”
 

 
“How does a stone experience solitude? How is the solitude of quarantine similar to previous such feelings? How do we define the loneliness a fishpond might feel, or that of a fountain? How does a stone’s solitude differ from that of a stone-covered pond? Does the lack of human presence lead to solitude for human creations? Does a fountain feel lonely if no one is there to witness the flying drops of water meet the marble surface of the pond? If solitude is portrayed through representation in an artwork, how would we define the solitude of the work itself? Can it be lack of an audience? Will it wane if it is not seen? Might it be absence of sight?”
 
Ehsan Nasser Torabi
Autumn 2020

Design+Code: Hamid Shavarean