Kymia Nawabi: Lodestar by Van Every/Smith Galleries

Kymia Nawabi: Lodestar

Kymia Nawabi: Lodestar This publication was produced in conjunction with Kymia Nawabi: Lodestar in the Smith Gallery, Davidson College, January 15–February 27, 2015. Van Every/Smith Galleries Davidson College 315 North Main Street Davidson, North Carolina 28035-7117 davidsoncollegeartgalleries.org Publication © 2015 Images © Kymia Nawabi All rights reserved. Printed in the United States. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-189057315-0 Editor: Chris Vitiello Design: Graham McKinney Printing: ImageMark cover: It Is Written in the Stars, detail, 2014, acrylic, glitter, ink, sticker and watercolor on paper mounted to panel, 48” x 48” opposite: The Heavier Side, detail, 2014, acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper, 58” x 66”

THE VAN EVERY/SMITH GALLERIES

Kymia Nawabi: Lodestar

Lodestar: Kymia Nawabi’s Memento Mori For more than two decades, Kymia Nawabi has made autobiographical works of art. While her earlier works looked inward and were fueled primarily by anxiety and feelings of isolation and otherness related to her Iranian-American heritage, her more recent explorations look outward and forward, toward cultural, religious and mythological views of death, funerary rites and the afterlife. These works remain autobiographical, sparked by her father’s accidental death when she was a teenager, as well as her own morbid feelings associated with depression. Not having been raised with any particular religious values or ideas regarding death and the afterlife, Nawabi has used her art to process her tragic experience. Paintings from her two most recent bodies of work, Not for Long, My Forlorn (2011–2014) and The Future (2014–present) are on view in her current exhibition, Lodestar, at Davidson College. The Not for Long, My Forlorn series focuses on the afterlife, while The Future takes a step back in time, exploring Nawabi’s lifespan as she prepares for death and the afterlife. To create her vanitas1, Nawabi pillages symbols of death and the afterworld from various cultures and presents narrative paintings that feature an ensemble of deities, birds, celestial beings and mortals (including her own likeness). Nawabi’s paintings are not traditional vanitas; they qualify only in their consideration of mortality and fleeting earthly pleasures. But Nawabi’s intent is more specific than simple contemplation 1

Vanitas are 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings that contain objects associated with death and transience such as skulls, flowers and burning candles. Viewers were prompted to consider their mortality and to repent for their earthly sins.

opposite: The Future, 2014, acrylic and ink on paper mounted to panel, 24” x 30” 3

and reconciliation—creating her artwork is analogous to developing her own belief system. The Not for Long, My Forlorn series is comprised of eleven drawings and two sculptures. The body of work is named for the inaugural piece in the series—a large work on paper that directly represents burial rites and the afterlife. Nawabi collapses or compresses time and dimensional space within one tableau—one of her primary pictorial strategies. She repeats images of Thoth, the half-bird, half-man Egyptian god, who keeps the universe in balance and greets individuals upon their arrival in the afterlife. In the lower portion of Not for Long, My Forlorn (2011, acrylic, crayon, glitter, ink and watercolor on paper, 48” x 48”), Thoth comforts or cradles a man in a shallow grave. A figure, perhaps the dead man’s soul, faintly hovers over the body. The figure is made of many blades of grass—new life sprung from the fertile burial plot. Thoth swoops in, fulfilling his role as an escort into the next world. Nawabi notes that the title represents Thoth’s consoling words: mourning will pass and you will soon move on from this life. Thoth represents a reassuring possibility to Nawabi as she reflects upon her own mortality.

Thoth is just one of many gods or mythological ideas Nawabi has incorporated into her work as she attempts to build her own value system for understanding and coping with death. In Have Faith in the Ouroboros (2011, ink and watercolor on paper, 72” x 78”), Nawabi again presents two figures seemingly meant to be one individual: on the left is a mortal woman, one of flesh; the figure on the right is a spiritual or cosmic being.2 Connected by a string, both figures glance at a lit match balanced between them. The mortal woman wears a flammable garb of twigs and logs—essentially a funeral pyre—while the spiritual being holds a staff with the Ouroboros, an ancient Greek symbol of reincarnation or eternal life. Commonly the Ouroboros is depicted as a snake or dragon eating its own tail. But Nawabi’s serpent directly confronts the woman. Nawabi notes, “just as snakes shed their skins many times within one lifetime, we also shed our skin metaphorically from baby to child to adolescent to adult. For me, the Ouroboros refers both to a stage of life you have outgrown within this life and the passing from this world into the next.”3 A cosmic silhouette of a woman, perhaps Nawabi’s self-portrait, features in We Carry the Wait (2012, acrylic, glitter, ink and watercolor on paper, 72” x 36”). She is perched atop a colorful, speckled mound of earth. Her posture is ambiguous— she could be posed in prayer or collapsed in mourning or exhaustion. The figure and pose repeat below, with her body now merged with the dirt pile. She appears more substantial in this second incarnation. The work alludes to a popular idiom: “Carrying the weight of the world on one’s shoulders.” But Nawabi’s wordplay in her title—replacing “weight” with “wait”—acknowledges the anticipation of death within the burden of living. In a more literal reading of this work, the shadowy figure disintegrates into the earth, becoming one with the soil, perhaps referring to a burial practice. 2

Nawabi often uses a “watery” silhouette to depict a cosmic being, spirit or soul.

Skype conversation with the artist, 10/9/14.

We Carry the Wait, 2012, acrylic, glitter, ink and watercolor on paper, 72” x 36” 4

Nawabi’s interest in alchemy4 is revealed in The Philosopher’s Stone Is In You (2011, acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper, 72” x 88 1/2”). The mythical philosopher’s stone was believed to be an elixir of life and a key to immortality. Nawabi presents four figures, including one that resembles the artist, all clad in clothing made of stones. Three stand or kneel in praise of an ibis; one turns away in fear. Nawabi notes that we come into the world as a mere shell, but that each of us has the potential to become something spectacular. This idea is alchemical shorthand: making something valuable out of nothing (in alchemy, specifically gold from base metals). Holding up a mirror, the ibis forces those willing to look to confront this potentiality. Flesh and bone can be transformed into a life worth living. The opportunity to pass from this world to the next—and thus, possess the philosopher’s stone—is inside of each of them. While many of the aforementioned works confront the afterlife, Nawabi’s most recent pieces focus on her current life and the preparatory stages before death. The works are reminders of the artist’s own mortality, functioning as memento mori.5 In The Future (2014, acrylic and ink on paper, 24” x 30”), the inaugural work in this new series of the same title, Nawabi and her husband are presented upon a platform floating in a sea of black. White speckles imply a stellar field. Their intertwined bodies are composed of nestled doves, a universal symbol of peace. Their veins repeatedly spell out the words “the future.” Nawabi’s head emerges from a floating box or wormhole in the upper-right portion of the painting, reinforcing the cosmic setting. She exhales, breathing the tableau into existence. By including a loved one in this work, 4

Coincidentally, “Kymia” translates into “alchemy” in Farsi.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase that translates to “Remember, your death” or “Remember, you must die.” The saying is a reminder to rid oneself of luxuries and earthly pursuits, as those things will not matter in the afterlife. The phrase is often associated with artistic works; though often varying in style, its purpose is the same: to remind the viewer of his or her own mortality. http://maa.missouri.edu/exhibitions/finalfarewell/mementointro.html

opposite: Initiation, detail, 2014, acrylic, glitter, ink, sticker and watercolor on paper mounted to panel, 20” x 20” 6

Nawabi posits art as a coping mechanism not only for her own mortality but her partner’s as well. She is comforted by the possibility that she and her husband will find each other again in future lives, reiterating her aspiration to live forever. Initiation (2014, acrylic, glitter, ink, sticker and watercolor on paper, 20” x 20”), also from The Future series, presents a dark, mysterious, caped figure pushing a hooded woman off of a platform comprised of the words “the future.” A poised whippoorwill, which symbolizes death in many cultures, awaits her fall. While the woman’s soul begins to escape her body in preparation of her death, we, as the viewer, are aware that she will live—a literal safety net of rope and earth is below her. This slice of earth takes the form of a body, perhaps signifying the woman’s eventual burial. Blades of grass spring from the fertile soil. The Lookout, 2011, ink and watercolor on Dura-lar, 18” x 21” Nawabi’s title frames the scene as a procedure referencing secret societies and freemasons. She is now one of the cognizant. A brush with death has forced her to contemplate her own mortality. The echo remains: always remember, you will die.

whippoorwill. However, the bird does not overtake her; she appears to control it and, thus, her own soul. The Ouroboros coils around her leg. The words “the future” are again spelled out in this work, though this time to a less discernible degree, across the sky in the logs and sticks. Mortal inevitability is understood in It Is Written in the Stars. Death is everyone’s fate. Acceptance is the only way we can exercise control over it. The woman acknowledges this through her deliberate actions. The glittery surface again alludes to alchemy and the concept of creating something precious from nothing, in finding worth in spite of one’s fate. Nawabi often leaves the identity of her female protagonists open. These women may or may not depict the artist herself. However, her works are never authentic self-portraits; instead, they represent the self she wants to be. Nawabi has chosen ideas from different cultures and religions, forging them into her own personal belief system around death, funerary rites and the afterlife. Where her early work ruminated on the mystery of the afterlife, her recent work focuses on this life as she comes to terms with the universal reality of death. Nawabi’s work has always been cathartic. As her exhibition title, Lodestar, suggests, these new works serve as maps or guiding principles as she attempts to understand and navigate mortality and the afterlife. – Lia Newman, Director/Curator, Van Every/Smith Galleries

It Is Written in the Stars (2014, acrylic, glitter, ink, sticker and watercolor on paper, 48” x 48”), the most recent work in The Future series, repeats familiar imagery. A woman, captured in a net, attempts to dive into a fire. She grasps at a

The Heavier Side, 2014, acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper, 58” x 66” 10

The Philosopher’s Stone Is In You, 2011, acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper, 72” x 88 1/2” 11

Not for Long, My Forlorn, 2011, acrylic, crayon, glitter, ink and watercolor on paper mounted to panel, 48” x 48”

It Is Written in the Stars, 2014, acrylic, glitter, ink, sticker and watercolor on paper mounted to panel, 48” x 48”

Initiation, 2014, acrylic, glitter, ink, sticker and watercolor on paper, 20” x 20”, Private Collection of C. Barbour Strickland, III

Have Faith in the Ouroboros, 2011, ink and watercolor on paper, 72” x 78” 15

Artist Biography Kymia Nawabi (b. 1980), a first-generation Iranian-American, is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, painting, sculpture and stop-motion animation. Nawabi graduated with a BFA in drawing and painting from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC in 2003 and earned her MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL in 2006. Nawabi then moved to New York City to continue her work; she currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Nawabi’s work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions including solo exhibitions at the Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, NC (2014) and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (2012). Nawabi has earned several prestigious residencies and awards for her art including the Keyholder Residency at the Lower East Side Printshop (2012); the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant and Fellowship in drawing (2009); the Swing Space residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2007 and 2009); Nominee and Fellowship, Aljira Emerge 10 Program (2008); Fellowship and Residency, the Women’s Studio Workshop (2007); and the Canal Chapter Residency (2007). Nawabi has been a visiting artist and lecturer at East Carolina University’s College of Fine Arts (2009, 2012, 2014), the University of Florida-Gainesville (2012) and Westchester Community College (2010). She has served as a panelist for the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships for printmaking, drawing and book arts (2011, 2012) and delivered the commencement speech for the College of Fine Arts at East Carolina University (2012).

THE VAN EVERY/SMITH GALLERIES