Shirazeh houshiary breathing

  • A visualization of the imprint of the breath of vocalists expanding and contracting as they hum songs from four religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and.
  • Breath has occupied a central position in Houshiary's entire oeuvre.
  • “I set out to capture my own breath, to find the essence of my own experience, transcending name, nationality, cultures.”.

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    Bidoun

    Shirazeh Houshiary’s latest project Breath, a collaboration with architect and husband Pip Horne, climbs up out of the stone plaza in front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. The work echoes Houshiary’s recent delicate drawings and video work. Her grids, which have a presence that elegantly suggest vaporous breath and activities on the cellular level of life, are made solid in a twenty-foot tall tower of enameled bricks with a humming soundtrack that resonates from within its interior. The masterfully engineered column is made to resemble the twisting double helix of DNA, among other things, while the soundtrack loops four different religions’ spiritual invocations together.

    In the context of Battery Park, the intended message about the basic similarities of humanity is apparent almost immediately. In front of the sculpture, the park offers views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty while the eternal flame commemorating September

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    Shirazeh Houshiary: Breath

    Shirazeh Houshiary

    For her presentation as a Collateral Event of the 55. International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di venedig, Shirazeh Houshiary will present Breath: a four kanal video that was first conceived in 2003, in a remastered version and as part of a unique, site-specific installation.

    In Breath (2013), the evocative chants of Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Islamic prayers emanate from kvartet video screens. The sound is choreographed with images that capture the expanding and contracting breath of the vocalists. The installation takes the form of a rectangular enclosure clad in black felt, which is entered through a narrow del that leads to a dimly lit white interior. There are four screens hung at eye level from which the chants of the different traditions rise and fall, svälla and dissipate in a haunting chorus that fills the room and permeates beyond each of its walls. Where inside there is unity, outside fryst vatten multiplicity. 

    The lo

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    Shirazeh Houshiary: Through Breath

    “I set out to capture my breath, to find the essence of my own experience, transcending name, nationality, cultures.” Shirazeh Houshiary

    Lisson Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Shirazeh Houshiary. This will be her sixth solo exhibition with the gallery, her first since 2000, and will include a 4-screen animation work.

    Breath has occupied a central position in Houshiary’s entire oeuvre. The sense of expansion and contraction characterising inhalation and exhalation is evident from her early sculptures of 1992-93. Later, in paintings such as Presence, 2000, breath leaves its mark as an elusive presence, a form that vanishes as soon as it enters visibility. Its absence begs for presence. She continues this theme in a new animated work not previously shown in the UK.

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    Houshiary’s paintings are monochromatic. She restricts her palette to mostly black and shades of white, only to negate such dualities. By

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