Please join artist Reza Aramesh and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Sean Kramer for a conversation on sculpture, reportage, and the representation of conflict in the media and across our visual culture. This event is hosted by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition Irreplaceable You: Personhood and Dignity in Art, 1980s to Now, on view through June 1, 2025.

Reza Aramesh was born in Iran and is based in London and New York. Working in sculpture, drawing, embroidery, ceramics, video and performance in a succession of “actions,” Aramesh draws inspiration from media coverage of international conflicts dating from the mid-twentieth century until present day. This coverage is then transformed into sculptural volumes in collaboration with non-professional models, who help him reenact his chosen source materials. No direct signs of war remain in the physical end results and the characters seem driven out of their initial contexts. Opposition between beauty and brutality allows the artist to unveil the absurdity and the futility of these actions. Aramesh decontextualizes these scenes of violence from their origins, exploring the narratives of representation and iconography of the subjected male body in the context of race, class and sexuality in order to create a critical conversation with the western art historical canon.

Image (left): Reza Aramesh, Site of the Fall – Study of the Renaissance Garden Action 247: At 11:45 am Friday 27 June 2003, 2023, marble. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum purchase, the Laura T. and John H. Halford, Jr. Art Acquisition Fund. Courtesy of Reza Aramesh Studio. Photo Credit: Nicola Gnesi. @ Reza Aramesh. Courtesy of Zaal Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.
Image (right): Courtesy of Reza Aramesh Studio.