ICE ROCKS

I am longing, but I don’t know for what
Artist house. Teheran, Iran

The concept for this exhibition was to bring 15 different artists (9 nationalities) that had all lived and worked in Berlin, to Iran. We came to Teheran empty-handed and made an art piece out of our three-week experience. We were requested not to make any paintings, photo or video works because of these medias’ domination in the Iranian contemporary art scene.

The suffocating heat of June (40-45 degrees) was the element that affected me the most. The people were a delight- helpful, friendly, and curious. The city was reasonably interesting, but having to wear a scarf around my head and long sleeved pants with a dress to cover my behind, was a struggle in the heat. On one of our many trips to the bazaar, I found a shop in a narrow side street that sold jelly wax. This is a material most commonly used for extremely kitsch candles; but as raw material, it is clear, like frozen water. In fact, it doesn’t only look like frozen water, but it also floats. When kept in water, it does not change its shape and does not melt. The fountain (pool) that is located outside the entrance of the Artist house was a perfect location for this installation, creating a maximal effect with the burning sun. When merely looking at the installation, people would instantly recognize the jelly wax as ice rocks and think that the water was cool and the ice cold and hard.

The second piece was a small installation inside the Artisthouse. You can also heat the material and it becomes fluid and resembels water. The idea was to create the illusion that water was coming out from underneath a door.