August 23, 2010
I am participating in a group showing titled 'Subverting The Urban' at Bilgi University Santral Campus, in Istanbul this coming September 1st and 2nd. On view is my barbershop themed installation, and I will be in attendance as well.
August 17, 2010
A new drawing titled 'Mongol' is posted.
Also, my new ongoing project "Running Man" gets its own category. Click the link on the left to follow up on videos and info.
August 5, 2010
Photos from the last two installations are posted here.
July 21, 2010
Mark & Kyoko
present:
Google Search: Beards of Persian Kings
Hosted by Mirak Jamal
25 July, 6–12 PM
26 July – 8 August, by appointment
We herewith invite you to a presentation of new drawings by Mirak Jamal, set in the domestic dwellings of a Persian parlor. This barbershop-as-sitting room is furnished with the garnished eccentricities familiar to an Iranian house, where the collective social musings of forefathers are conversed upon textile rugs and absorbed between each sip of tea.
These tributes to ancestors are depicted as large-scale graphite renditions of kings of past, serving as iconic symbols of bearded styles from each period of great Iranian dynasties: from the imperial mustache of the Qajar age, and the triumphant beard of the Achaemenid empire, to a Fu-Manchu that recalls the Mongol invasions from the East. Collected from online image sources, the works hint to an unresolved Iranian history and the general perplexed state of human identity. A visual medley is displayed as a bygone heritage set against the backdrop of Photoshop aesthetics in the digital age.
Although connoting a familiar history, the cultural signifiers within this body of work highlight a dilemma of authenticity and appropriation. This hub of nostalgia from our host’s Iranian disposition serves as a place to ponder over that which makes our history your history, and our house your house.
For more information please contact: info@markandkyoko.com
or visit www.mirakjamal.com
July 17, 2010
A documentation piece of Edit/Trim Histories is featured at a group installation by curatorial collective 10/2/10 at Appartement in Berlin. The event was organized by Nine Eglantine Yamamoto-Masson and Triple Canopy.
June 1, 2010
Some revisions and a couple new works are added to the site.
May 18, 2010
This Saturday, May 22 is my studio solo-showing featuring new drawings and an installation.
"Edit/Trim Histories: The Barbershop"
Location:
Working (basement space)
Manteuffelstrasse 58, Berlin
Opening vernissage:
Saturday May 22nd, 7pm-10pm
Duration:
May 22-29th
By appointment
The barbershop is a meeting point where one may meddle in gossip and find themselves at a point of discovery through selection of style and trimming accompanied by mirror glances of uncertainty. Through this process, the barbershop plays a signifier for self-evaluation, which may incite moments of retrospect and foresight. The space created for Edit/Trim Histories: At the Barbershop is an imagined outdoor barbershop. Placed across the installation are two photo-realistic drawing interpretations of digitally manipulated images of facial hair, which serve as references to mustache and beard styles.
Representative of decadent Iranian dynasties, the drawings depict a Qajar-era imperial mustache from the turn of the last century and a kingly Achaemenid beard from King Cyrus' age, 500 BC. These archaic facial hairs are attributed to certain time periods, peoples and social standings. As historical representations they are placed out of context, and with computer monitor glitches and Photoshop aesthetics - becoming symbols of shifting cultures and Zeitgeists. The staged location serves as a venue where the viewer may find themselves at a crossroads of different time periods and cultural plains. Meant to capture a surreal thought or time warp, the visual environment draws between a present and a lost past, and between a cultural particularity and common universality. Regions of thinking are therefore blurred, alluding to not only my personal unsettled identity and heritage, but also to a perplexed human placement in the context of culture and history.
Edit/Trim Histories: At the Barbershop is not true to our digital age nor necessarily bound to some historically accurate past. While lending a glimpse into a vast age-old culture, it is ultimately a romanticized interpretation rather then a formulaic depiction. The transformed venue portrays a world where pasts and distances collide and merge – breaking our own ideals. Does the renewed take of the past amplify the rebirth of a bygone style or just indicate the death of it? From the standing view of the stool the audience is left with that decision of trimming and editing.
April 29, 2010
The D21 Kunstraum Leipzig is holding zine themed events on the 7th and 8th of May. Folklore Of The Orientalists Issue #2 is displayed among other contributors. More information here.
April 12, 2010
The site is officially up and ready with new work, and the Folklore Of The Orientalists blog got a make over as well.
March 17, 2010
The first issue of Folklore Of The Orientalists is now up for online mailorder at Art Metropole.
March 12, 2010
Folklore Of The Orientalists #2 will be exhibited through Bernhard Cella's No-ISBN at the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig from the 20th of March on, and at the Leipziger Buchmesse taking place from the 18-21th of March, 2010.
http://salon-fuer-kunstbuch.at/noisbn
Feb. 26, 2010
I have a published poem in the premier issue of Vancouver based magazine Poetry Is Dead.
Feb. 25, 2010
Folklore Of The Orientalists zine #2 is now available at Motto and Pro QM in Berlin.