Of Labour, Of Dirt

Exhibition view, 2014

Coutesey of Sazmanab - Ab/Anbar Centre for Contemporary Art, Tehran

Of Labor, Of Dirt extended an inquiry into the tension between systemic structures and individual agency, confronting the compromises and emotional strain embedded in contemporary existence. In a world where man-made systems suppress fundamental human impulses, the exhibition probed the muted dynamics of this negotiation—offering no resolution, only a space to reckon with its contradictions.

At the core of the exhibition were fifty wheel-thrown terracotta scream pots and three large-scale scream vessels, where clay functioned as both a material and a metaphor for labor—at once a means of catharsis and an index of constraint. The scream pots invited visitors into the precarious balance between relief and resistance, where the act of screaming into an object blurred the distinction between subject and artifact. This final cycle of a three-part series marked the first display of these works in Tehran, concluding an exploration that began with Dialectic of Failure and continued with TIME TO LET GO…—a meditation on the paradox of labor, endurance, and systemic control.

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Screampots, 2014

Terracotta

Installation view, Sazmanab - Ab/Anbar Centre for Contemporary Art, Tehran