In blue: a momentary assembly of
the absent, the impossible, and the hopeful
Reyhan Yazdani

July 23 – August 31, 2024

Reyhan Yazdani’s first solo show in Vancouver considers the displacement of objects and people, the legacies of dispossession and the generational, geographical and terrestrial experiences of loss and yearning. Through creative processes of transformation, reorientation, replication, and modification, Yazdani thinks through museum archives of objects, images and narratives – often visited with limited online access.

In this body of work presented at Seymour Art Gallery, Yazdani engages with an online archive of folios from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) by Abu’l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus) in possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This manuscript, created in Tabriz, Iran, dates back to 1530 and has been migrated and exchanged between more than ten ownerships as a gift. In interacting with these uprooted materials, Yazdani prompts questions such as: What happens to landscapes and geographies that have been excavated of their generational and cultural heritage? What do displaced bodies – of objects and people – have in common, and what does their interaction look like in diaspora? Who gets to be preserved and cared for and who is left behind?

Yazdani is curious about the generative space of recalibration. Her work aims to articulate the stretching of time and space that shapes displacement as an embodied experience of simultaneity, ambiguity, and wonder while mediating between the historical and contemporary.

Reyhan Yazdani (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer currently based in Vancouver, the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people. Her research-driven work migrates between a range of media including works on paper, objects, social invitations, and poetry to engage with ontological, material and spatial inquiries around and about themes of exile, language, and diaspora.

Yazdani received a Master of Architecture from the University of Tehran in 2017 and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2019. Over the last two years, her research has been supported and presented by multiple grants, galleries, and publications including the Canada Council for the Arts (2023- 2024), artist-in-residence programs with the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Alberta; Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Burnaby; and Access Gallery, Vancouver; exhibitions at Kelowna Art Gallery, Seymour Art Gallery, Centre A, Open Studio Toronto and publications such as C Magazine. She currently teaches at Emily Carr University of Art and Design as an associate professor in the Culture & Community Faculty. 

Reyhan Yazdani gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Exhibition Reception: Sunday, July 28th, from 2 – 4 p.m.
Paper Making Workshop: Sunday, August 25 at 2 p.m. Registration is required

Photo credit: Reyhan Yazdani

Paper-Making Workshop with Reyhan Yazdani
Sunday, August 25, 2024 from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Join exhibiting artist Reyhan Yazdani for a free handmade paper-making workshop! Participants can choose to bring bring paper materials they may like to include in their creation.

FREE | all materials provided | appropriate for people aged 9 and older | children must be accompanied by an adult | paper can be picked up Tuesday, August 27, 2024 between 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Space is limited, so registration is required.