| In the past few years, the majority of my work and research has been dealing with the domestic sphere and how it can act as a microcosm for the nation-state and society. I am interested in how the family, especially under circumstances of war, can learn to re-enact the trauma of political violence within the walls of the house. In Makeshift Objects (2008-9), I modified personal domestic objects such as a toothbrush, spoon, comb, reading glasses, etc., into weapons mimicking shivs made by prisoners. The manipulation of objects intended for care, functions as a re-enactment of abuse, inverting the house, or “hos,” which is the root for “host,” “hostel,” “hospital,” and “hospitable” into a house, or “hos” that is closer to “hostile,” “hostility”… |  |
Abbas Akhavan
In the past few years, the majority of my work and research has been dealing with the domestic sphere and how it can act as a microcosm for the nation-state and society. I am interested in how the family, especially under circumstances of war, can learn to re-enact the trauma of political violence within the walls of the house. In Makeshift Objects (2008-9), I modified personal domestic objects such as a toothbrush, spoon, comb, reading glasses, etc., into weapons mimicking shivs made by prisoners. The manipulation of objects intended for care, functions as a re-enactment of abuse, inverting the house, or “hos,” which is the root for “host,” “hostel,” “hospital,” and “hospitable” into a house, or “hos” that is closer to “hostile,” “hostility,” and “hostage.” The work invokes a replay of systemic violence inherited from the nation-state, perpetuated, and reinforced by the family—parents against parents, parents against children, children against children, children against pets, and so on throughout generations.
In more recent works, my focus has shifted to spaces outside the home—the garden, the backyard, and other domesticated landscape. In Landscape: For the Birds (2009) and Untitled Garden (2008-9), I explore the power relations embedded in the domestication of nature and the territorial use of space. Landscape: For the Birds, a site-specific audio installation at the Vancouver Art Gallery, uses the sounds of invasive bird species as a way of making the familiar setting of the city alien and potentially hostile. The chattering of invasive British birds, installed in two tall Cypress trees at the entrance of the gallery, serenades the audience while drawing attention to Canada’s history of colonization.
In Untitled Garden, a long row of tall cedar trees confronts the audience inside the gallery. They resemble a row of solders that barricade the unobstructed view and make the space a potentially inhospitable environment. The cedar hedge, commonly used as a natural form of fencing, has a long history in the contentious battle for the privatization of common lands. Hedges have been, and still are, used as a way of controlling animal and human movement, and as a way of rendering grazing and gleaning as trespassing and theft. In these installations, I highlight the entrance of the gallery as a site of significance. The intention is to emphasize the ritualistic nature of (art) spaces and art viewing but, more importantly, to render the audience as active viewers and potential trespassers.
