The Third Line announces the opening of two solo exhibitions by Pouran Jinchi, and Kamran Samimi from Thursday, 11th January 2024 until the 16th of February 2024.
Gallery 1, Pouran Jinchi, ‘Fly Like Dandelions’:
Inspired by the New York Times article “Great Climate Migration,” Pouran Jinchi embarked on her latest series, “Fly Like Dandelions.” The catalyst was the plight of Jorge A., a Guatemalan farmer compelled to flee due to climate change’s impact on agriculture. Jinchi draws from landscapes affected by climate change, such as ghost forests and arid lands.
Using repeated Persian characters for “trees,” she crafts depictions allowing legibility to yield to artistic abstraction gradually. Dots, fundamental in Islamic calligraphy, symbolise an arid landscape, representing lingering memories. Merging traditional calligraphy with abstraction, Jinchi explores perception, reality, and meaning.
Her reflective colour palette employs black and grey for devastation and blue for hope. The dandelion, symbolising migration’s nuanced nature, becomes a powerful representation in Jinchi’s art. The transformed dandelion seed pod drifts across landscapes, echoing the resilience of migrants navigating new paths, much like dandelion seeds dispersed everywhere.
Gallery 2, Kamran Samimi, ‘Before Nature (I Am Both Created and Destroyed)’:
Inspired by the natural materials defining the region, Kamran Samimi delves into the ancient stories concealed within the golden dunes of the desert foundation. “Translations (2023)” becomes a subterranean exploration of Dubai’s contemporary architecture, interpreting the city’s roots beyond its rocky base. Through keen observation of desert boulders, Samimi seeks to revive the spirit of the landscape.
Going global, “Small Monuments (2023)” takes on a profound dimension as Samimi unearths stones from significant global locations. Collaborating with visible and invisible forces, he transforms each stone into a canvas, attuned to the wordless language of the natural world. The exhibition’s narrative expands with “Rain Paintings (2023),” a poetic homage to Samimi’s childhood in rural Hawai’i, capturing the soothing nightly rain during challenging times.
At the heart of the exhibition stands the sculpture “Unbroken Column (2023),” crafted from limestone segments, paying homage to ancient religious structures in the region. Reflecting on the age-old practice of etching beliefs into stone, it is a powerful reminder of Dubai’s modernity. “Unbroken Column (2023)” symbolises a connection between ancient traditions and contemporary aspirations, encapsulating Samimi’s exploration and the profound narratives interwoven throughout the showcase in a landscape dominated by glass and steel monuments.
About Pouran Jinchi
Hailing from Mashhad, a sacred shrine city in Iran, Pouran Jinchi’s early exposure to the symbolic potency of architecture, objects, decoration, and the written word profoundly shaped her artistic sensibilities. This consciousness permeates her body of work, delving into the intersectionality of literary and pictorial narratives.
While pursuing a civil engineering degree at George Washington University, Jinchi’s analytical mind was sharpened. However, driven by a passion for the creative realm, she shifted gears. Trained as a classical calligrapher in Iran, she furthered her art education at UCLA and the Art Students League of New York. Synthesising diverse training, Jinchi forged her unique artistic approach. Rooted in her mathematical background, her methodology reflects a creative tension, blending the disciplined control of traditional Islamic calligraphy with the spontaneous fluidity of Western abstract painting.
About Kamran Samimi
Attracted to the transient beauty of natural elements like stones, wood, pigment, and land, Kamran Samimi approaches both his subject matter and materials with a blend of curiosity and reverence. Rooted in a strong sense of place, his artistic process delves into the intricate relationships and tensions between human and non-human ancestors, viewed through the prism of his multicultural identity (Iranian/Norwegian, raised in rural Hawai’i).
Samimi endeavours to establish a sense of balance, considering his work as a gift of beauty to a world grappling with injustice and devastation. His artistic practice is inseparable from his worldview, influenced by the principles of Zen Buddhism and Sufi Mysticism that emphasise a direct connection with the natural world. Consequently, his process is both penitent and whimsical, with his hands moving in harmony with the rhythms of Nature: simultaneously deconstructing and reconstructing, exhibiting control and compassion.
Location: The Third Line, Dubai
Dates: January 11, 2024 – February 16, 2024