The Core of Myth ( فارسی )

Writen By M.B.Ziyai

Many contemporary theorists have discussed the faith of body in the postmodern situation. In a writing titled Body Invaders, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker focus on the metamorphosis of body in the postmodern period and its precariousness in the social conditions of our time. Today, mutation and biological transformation are among critical issues and deep taboos of our society. Haunted by allegories and laboratory researches, sexuality is one of the main concerns of the postmodern period. Although an intertwining of man and machine and the idea of cyborg as a contingent reality are best manifest in science fictions, half-human/half-animal creatures have attracted the attention of man from the time of animism up to current date. Today the ancient idea of self-identification has been replaced with imaginary post-human bodies.

            In the ancient forms of self-identification, a superhuman creature would combine human body with the head or body of an animal, capturing supernatural forces in human flesh. Cybernetic androids today create semi-human creatures not easily distinguishable from real humans.

            Fereydoun Ave’s sculptures are two-sided species experiencing a kind of metamorphosis and transformation.

            The statues combine a number of symbolic elements. Firstly, in shape they resemble banisters of a magical palace. Secondly, due their minimalism their bodies have found an incongruent and unimportant presence. Thirdly, inspired by classic moldings, the statues have an air of the eternal beauty of the Hellenistic period. And finally, their long horns give them the appearance of pans living in far and abandoned mountains. In ancient mythology, divas guard herds of men and have a satiric presence.

            Such juxtapositions have created eccentric statues with an odd eternal beauty. They resemble glorious pedestals on top of staircases of a magnificent palace.

            Their horrifying beauty is attractive, pleasant and cold.

The combination of ancient and contemporary elements is a sweet representation of the position of the artist in the New Age and the postmodern situation.

An intertextual layer-by-layer excavation can read the meanings hidden at the core of these strange statues. The busts combine magical elements and are inspired by the fluidity of ancient mythology.

Undoubtedly, the artist has tried to discover the general meaning of signs he uses in this combination (human, animal and object). A kind of contemporary mythology originates from the depths of the artist’s mind: white artworks comprised of a lion’s claw, the frozen face of a Greek goddess, the skull of the golden horn Apis, Assyrian carriage, the long and golden horns of the reindeers of the frozen fields of the North Pole and Siberian steppes and the turtles of the Caribbean Islands.

Such perfection in form on a meaningful platform comprises Fereydoun Ave’s beautiful statues with their horrifying appearance resting on pedestals impatient to meet the viewer.

 transleted by Bavand Behpour