Payam Mofidi explores new aspects of the concept of displacement, the main theme of the “Colonial Body-Islands” series, exhibited in two separate yet simultaneous exhibitions in Montreal, Canada in 2019. The concept, in its physical sense, metaphorically addresses the bodies that have become dispersed and forced to accept the human-made geographical determinism and therefore drift across open waters. In this collection, the concept has found a more transcendent and personal denotation in which the artist depicts the exodus from the concept of border and human geography in a poetic language.

In the exhibited works, the floating bodies have changed into mountains rising from the waves; emancipated and liberated, yet attached to their surroundings. This emancipation and attachment were the starting point for the creation of the other collection on display, in which Payam Mofidi addresses the concept of birth and recreation with a metaphorical language by placing pieces of stones and drawings on the images of nature.

Mountains and rocks, in this collection, which are the main objects for Mofidi’s aesthetic expression in two different yet homogeneous contexts, were modeled in a three-dimensional form. In the series including mountains, these objects that stand somewhere between photo and reality, or in other words the imaginary 3D-modelled photos, were transferred on paper with an exclusive technique Payam Mofidi always uses in his creations. Finally, the image was hand-rendered with ink.

In the collection of stones, on the other hand, after the landscapes were photographed, the artist inserted 3D-modelled stones into the images with appropriate lighting. Digital drawings on photos were a choice to emphasize the concept of human intellectual creation and its relation to the creation and reproduction of nature. The works are all created in unique editions.

Payam Mofidi was born in 1980 in Tehran and lives and works in Montreal. He received his Master’s degree in animation from L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), in Paris, and his Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Tehran Azad University. This is his fourth show with Assar Gallery. In the last ten years, he has participated in many international residencies and his works have been exhibited in numerous biennials, art fairs, and solo and group exhibitions all over the world.