SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
University Affairs Office
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
(707) 664-2057
e-mail: jean.wasp@sonoma.edu
University Affairs Office
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
(707) 664-2057
e-mail: jean.wasp@sonoma.edu
-
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2003
Contact: Carla Stone, Gallery Manager, (707) 664-2295
Renunciation: A Requiem Opens as University Gallery Celebrates 25th Anniversary
The University Art Gallery at Sonoma State University is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Renunciation: A Requiem, a site-specific installation by Oakland-based (and Iranian-born) artist Seyed Alavi. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artist on Thursday, Sept. 1 from 4 to 6 p.m. The show runs through Oct. 19.
Alavi has exhibited his work both regionally and nationally, including Franklin Furnace, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, The deSaisset Museum, The Museum of Santa Cruz County, The University Art Museum- Cal State Long Beach, The University Art Museum, San Bernardino, and San Francisco's Capp Street Project. Last year he was awarded a six-month residency in Kyoto, Japan through the NEA US/Japan Creative Artists' Fellowship.
Renunciation: A Requiem is inspired by "The Merchant and His Clever Parrot," a story by the13th century Sufi poet Rumi and incorporates a poem by Hafez, also a Sufi poet of the14th century.
Alavi has used various materials along with this text and the very architectural character of the Gallery as metaphors to investigate the nature of life and human existence. He has created a contemporary version of Plato's cave, where the viewer is asked to question the very notion of reality and freedom.
The installation utilizes all 2,500 square feet of the Gallery's exhibition area and takes advantage of the existing dividing walls to suggest and express the idea of a meandering pathway. The air is suffused with the scent of aloeswood incense and all of the walls are painted with Sumi-e ink creating a vast abstract, gestural drawing.
The entire space is lit from above by the light emanating from the words of the Hafez poem made out of neon tubing. The words to the poem hang face down at various heights from the ceiling and are legible only when the viewer looks up. The floor is covered with a thin layer of soil to record the footprints of the visitors as well as to further emphasize the concept of a passage. There are nine yellow canaries, each in their own cage, placed on black chairs and tables throughout the space.
Renunication: A Requiem seeks to explore the nature of life as well as our human existence, and more specifically the notion of absolute freedom.
Alavi uses various materials along with text and the very architectural character of the Gallery as metaphors to investigate the more subtle layers of this abstract concept called “freedom.”
Renunication: A Requiem is the first exhibition in a year-long series of programs celebrating the University Art Gallery’s 25th anniversary. The University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, is supported in part by its members, the Art Advocates, proceeds from the annual “Art from the Heart” benefit auction, and through grants from the Instructionally Related Activities Fund of Sonoma State University, and the SSU Academic Foundation.
For more information, call the gallery at (707) 664-2295.
CAPTION: Seyed Alavi uses the very architectural character of the Gallery, a Sufi poem and nine canaries as metaphors to investigate the nature of life and human existence.