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Cinema Rivoli
Oil on Canvas | 130 cm x 160 cm | 2022
Detail of 'Cinema Rivoli' and 'Radio City'
Buildings of a Misremembered Past
These series of paintings are the depiction of three cinema theatre buildings in Tehran, Iran which were built in the sixties. These buildings belong to a specific moment in time where Western brutalist architecture was considered utopic and futuristic. Today (perhaps the perceived future for the sixties), the buildings are decayed, abandoned, and neglected. Inspired by the dystopian sci-fi novels of 'The High-Rise' and ‘The Drowned World’ by J.G.Ballard, in these paintings the nature is starting to grow over fragments of these buildings, creating a non-place, an ambiguous space that does not reflect a definable singular narrative and is suggesting a new unknown space. These paintings are the liminal space between utopia and dystopia, where the failure of humans in conquering the future of the earth, is defeated by the vitality and regrowth of nature.
Detail of 'Cinema Rivoli'
Radio City
Oil on Canvas | 130 cm x 160 cm | 2021
Detail of 'Radio City'
Cinema Pacific
Oil on Linen | 200 cm x 160 cm | 2022
Detail of 'Cinema Pacific'
Installation view of ‘Buildings of a misremembered past’ on the right, and Jacob Talkowski’s art on the left.
Photo of 10 finalists of the UKNA Robert Walters Awards 2022, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK