re.riddle

 Kamran Samimi: Being Time

May 11 - June 22, 2024

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 11 from 5-7pm

Gallery Hours: Weds - Sat 11am - 5pm
Minnesota Street Project, Room 204
1275 Minnesota St., San Francisco

re.riddle is pleased to present Being Time, a solo exhibition of new work by Kamran Samimi. The opening reception is on Saturday, May 11 from 5-7pm at 1275 Minnesota Street, Room 204. The exhibition runs through June 22, 2024.

The exhibition program features In Conversation: Kamran Samimi x Kathy Zarur on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 6pm. Kamran Samimi speaks with Associate Professor of Art History, curator and culture worker Kathy Zarur about his artistic practice, the notion of ‘being time’, and the relationship between human and non-human ancestors.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

The illusion of a life cycle is persistent for conscious beings, as life and consciousness are interlinked and circumscribed by measurable boundaries. Time is thus relative, often experienced through a veil of linearity with a single beginning and end. In his exhibition Being Time, Kamran Samimi interrogates the nature of mortality and the relationship between human and nonhuman worlds. Rejecting the stasis of mortality and decay, Samimi questions how might a reimagined temporal ontology impact our relationship with the environment and the non-human entities within it?

Samimi believes that time is an illusion and that the eternal is perceptible through communion with nature. His artistic practice is informed by natural and indigenous ephemera —stones, wood, pigment, water and land— which he uses to explore the complex metahistories that tie us to both our human and non-human ancestors. Through his work, Samimi extrapolates existential truths from natural ephemera, recognizing that all organic matter possesses an inherent agency and animism. Experiencing Nature in this way challenges the conventional hierarchy and fosters a profound interconnectedness that defies the prevailing anthropocentric worldview. In this context, non-human entities, above and below ground, may become teachers for guidance. They are perceived as silent witnesses observing generations and absorbing the histories of their surroundings. Objects of nature are our ancestors holding rememberings of boundless time.

The artworks in the exhibition manifest the sentiment of being time, bridging the tactile with the metaphysical as embodied temporal experiences. Working site-specifically, Samimi’s stone impressions, large-scale stone sculptures, and mist paintings are created by way of embodied remembering, recalling the layered histories from the stones and natural ephemera from Ocean Beach, Mile Rock Beach, Sutro Baths and Twin Peaks in San Francisco. The artist’s stone impressions reveal reciprocal gestures between his hands and those of nature, interpreting the stories and essence of stone in faint traces and bold marks on the canvas. The resulting image is a testament to the dynamic exchange between past and present, countering our preconceived notions of permanence and finite life-cycles. Mountains erode before our eyes, if only we could pause long enough to notice.

In the same vein, the ethereal quality of Samimi’s mist paintings evoke temporal ambiguity. The paintings are a collaborative process between the artist and the elements, characterized by multiple sessions of paint drips, intermittent exposure to fog and mist, meticulous observation, and reverent reflections on the spirit of place. Samimi's recognition of the ravages of time extends to a grouping of small obelisks, each a salvaged fragment from columnar basalt. Standing steadfast, their skin is adorned with marks and scars which denote countless lifetimes since their extraction from the earth. Samimi bears witness to this unfolding ecology, paying homage to the animacy and spirituality inherent in the stones, wind, sea, and fog. Here, people and place serve as mutual remedies for one another, transcending the constraints of time immemorial.

PROGRAMMING

In Conversation: Kamran Samimi x Kathy Zarur

Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 6PM
Minnesota Street Project, Gallery 204
1275 Minnesota St., San Francisco

Kamran Samimi speaks with Associate Professor of Art History, curator and culture worker Kathy Zarur about his artistic practice, the notion of ‘being time’, and the relationship between human and non-human ancestors.

Kathy Zarur is an educator and culture worker in San Francisco. Through courses, exhibitions, and conferences, she seeks to highlight artists and histories that have historically been sidelined. Her approach to exhibition making centers around place to explore topics including belonging, identity, and the landscape. Previously at the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates, she was an assistant curator and producer of live art. More recently as an independent curator, she has created exhibitions for the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco Arts Commission, Minnesota Street Project, and SOMArts. She has organized conferences with San Francisco State University at the de Young and Asian Art Museum. Her writings and editorial work appear in Art in America, Broadsheet, and Sternberg Press. She is Associate Professor of Art History at Skyline College, Fellow of Modern and Contemporary South West Asian and North African art at Smarthistory.org, and a board member of Arab.AMP. Kathy has a PhD in Art History and a Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Michigan.

Artworks

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