Copperfield, London is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of New York based, Iranian artist Shahpour Pouyan (CRF 2018), Wūshuǐ, running until December 15th, 2018. Shahpour Pouyan (CRF 2018) is also a part of a group show called “Punk Orientalism,” running from 10 November 2018 to 17 February 2019 at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Titled, Wūshuǐ, the exhibition makes the unlikely connection between political ideologies and representations of the landscape. Across cultures and history, the landscape has been represented in painting, drawing and photography but is by its nature nearly always considered innocuous. When a landscape is painted by Winston Churchill, used as a symbol of national pride or mislabelled however it can become more divisive. The exhibition title Wūshuǐ – meaning polluted water – is a bastardization of the Chinese phrase Shan Shui or ‘mountain water,’ a style of landscape painting in Taoist painting tradition that refers to ideas of purity. Through this lens Pouyan draws connections across history and cultures to create a series of works that stand as laden metaphors.
Punk Orientalism focuses on the theme of non-conformity as a tool for investigating contemporary art and critical enquiry on the spaces and places that identify with Central Asia and the Caucasus from a post-Soviet perspective. Rooted in the conceptual capacity of “punk” the exhibition centres on the contemporary theme of resistance and highlights the practices of artists who have questioned changing and divided societies from a variety of different historical and conceptual vantage points.