*** This interview is published in ArtAsiaPacific’s Blog.
Abbas Akhavan, whose practice spans drawing, video, sculpture, performance and site-specific installations, is fascinated by the places in which he works. He pays close attention to the local architecture, economy, and inhabitants, immersing himself in the area while maintaining a respectful distance, like a good neighbor. He is particularly interested in the domestic sphere—in his words, “a forked space between hospitality and hostility”—and the cultivated plots just outside the home (the garden, the backyard).
The Tehran-born artist emigrated to Canada with his family in 1977 and is typically based in Toronto, but has spent the past year in San Francisco as the Capp Street artist-in-residence at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. This culminated in his first solo show in the United States, titled “Cast for a Folly,” which uses as its departure point an obscure photograph of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Looted during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the museum lost nearly 15,000 objects in a span of 36 hours. The photograph, taken by director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative Corine Wegener, depicts the museum lobby in an eerily frozen state, with its doors barricaded with empty vitrines, furniture in disarray, and a layer of dust, scattered loose due to the bombings, covering everything in sight. At the Wattis, Akhavan recreates this image in a new installation that includes sculptures, wall-based works, fabricated furniture, and living organisms. We spoke at a bar near Wattis about his move to San Francisco, the significance of the photograph, and his new show.