exhibitions

Abbas Kiarostami: Trees in Snow
27th April - 19th May 2005

Abbas Kiarostami is an exceptional and critically acclaimed Iranian artist. Renowned for his film making, Kiarostami is also a beautiful and prolific photographer and poet.

The Zelda Cheatle Gallery, now in Shoreditch, is proud to host Trees in Snow as part of the Iranian Heritage Foundation’s pan-London festival of Abbas Kiarostami’s work (more details). Translations of his haikus will be read daily in the Gallery between 13.00 and 13.30.

Kiarostami has a symbiotic relationship with his subject matter. He has been a winter visitor, traversing the terrain of Tehran for twenty-five years, photographing the growth of saplings to trees, stripped to their nakedness in white landscapes. His is a pilgrimage. Like the C19th Romantics he is at one with nature, on occasions he

“travels with two or three well-equipped cameras and tens of raw film rolls but been able to release the shutter less than ten times; not because I could not find beautiful scenes, but merely due to inappropriate light.”

There is a deceptive, filigree delicacy to many of the photographs rendering them akin to Japanese pen and ink drawings. The images are bereft of people. In one a dog stands central, commanding; in another a bird, as delicate as the branch on which it has alighted, almost invades the purity of barren trees and snow. Barren trees and snow but never bleakness. There is something soothing, a calm flavour to each. We are at peace, blanketed in the stretching snow.

Kiarostami reveals the indigenous landscape in spellbinding natural light. Searching for a reference point, one might think of the photographs of Andy Goldsworthy’s snow and ice sculpture. Each artist deals with a transcendent, impermanent nature; each revels in the alchemy of light and cold. Yet these are highly individual artists. Goldsworthy sculpts and creates installations in nature, breathing life into his ideas. Kiarostami gathers the threads of his artistry, weaving his poetic vision and his fine art background to capture and share with his film maker’s eye what enchants him.

“Contemplating the cloudy sky and the massive trunk of a tree under a magical light is difficult when one is alone. Not being able to feel the pleasure of seeing a magnificent landscape with someone else is a form of torture. That is why I started taking photographs. I wanted to eternalise somehow those moments of passion and pain.”

Trees in Snow will be open on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 12.00 -18.00, Saturday & Sunday 12.00 -16.00, (and by appointment only Monday and Tuesday).
For further information contact the Zelda Cheatle Gallery.
T 020 7729 2422 email: photo@zeldacheatle.com

Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artist ( Festival 28 April - 21 June)

Organised by the Iran Heritage Foundation, as part of their tenth anniversary celebrations, the festival of Abbas Kiarostami’s work will raise awareness of the dynamics of cultural creativity in today’s Iran. Films, exhibitions, installations, publications, a film workshop, a conference, interviews and ‘in-conversations’ will be presented. Other participants are: BFI Publications, Channel 4, Eastern Art Report, the French Institute, the London Film School, the National Film Theatre, Portfolio Magazine, Saqi Books and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Iran Heritage Foundation.

The Foundation was established in October 1995 to help promote and preserve the ancient and modern heritage and culture of Iran.

For further information about the festival contact Rebecca Ward on 020 7613 3306 or email press@rebeccaward.co.uk