Exhibition | Wild flowers in the midst by Peter Eramian and Where does a thought go when it's forgotten? by Ali Eyal

Opening on Thursday, October 17, 2019, 3pm at Platform 39

Exhibition dates: October 17, 2019 - November 30, 2019

Wild flowers in the midst by Peter Eramian

2019

Concrete sculptures, books and journals, archival documents

Moufflon Bookshop in Nicosia, Cyprus, is one of few structures that persists in the midst of destruction. A selection of books and journals selected by Moufflon trace the relationship between Cyprus and Lebanon from the viewpoint of writers spanning different generations. A common ground is proposed which—in the words of Silvia Federici, “like the grass in the cracks of the urban pavement”—affirms our interdependence and capacity for cooperation. A sculptural installation by Peter Eramian accompanies the selection. Found concrete slabs are placed on abandoned shop display stands amassed from the streets of Beirut. A correlation is suggested between the concrete blanketing of land and the closing down of small businesses. The collateral damage of accelerated construction developments is a common concern between Cyprus and Lebanon. Faded wild flowers redrawn from Maroula Philippou's From Cyprus with Love mark the surfaces of the slabs.

With the support of Sharjah Art Foundation and the Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Cyprus 

Commissioned for Home Works 8

Special thanks to Moufflon Bookshop, Nicosia (Cyprus)

Peter Eramian is an artist and writer based in Nicosia, Cyprus. He completed his studies in Fine Art & History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London and Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. He was co-founder of Shoppinghour Magazine and The Cyprus Dossier. After returning to Cyprus, Eramian co-founded Thkio Ppalies, an artist-led project space in Pallouriotissa, Nicosia. In 2018, he completed the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. 

Via play, Eramian's practice opens up discourses that address notions and representations of nature and human activity. By interplaying dualities such as agency and grace, using mostly common urban materials and found objects, Eramian seeks out spirituality in unlikely places. Collaborations and laborious exercises of varying intensities inform the ethics and sculptural philosophy of his practice, while carefully selected cultural and popular references offer points of departure that open up towards social and political realities.

With the support of Sharjah Art Foundation 

Where does a thought go when it's forgotten? by Ali Eyal

2019

Oil paint, color pencils, and ink drawings on envelopes, paper, and cardboard boxes

For the past ten years or so, a team of architects and illustrators has collaborated on reconstructing the kitchen and living room of a destroyed house on the outskirts of Baghdad. While producing floor plans and suggestions alongside the artist, and exchanging them via sealed envelopes, the team was overtaken by delightful scents. The plants and flowers from which those odors originated eventually found their way into the sealed envelopes and paperwork, as if haunting the architects and illustrators’ bodies in a ghostly matter. The latter found themselves drawing the poisonous flowers for two days in a row. A French architect even wrote: “The scent of this beautiful white flower has triggered nausea, thirst, and fever. Yesterday, we forgot where we were and caught ourselves witnessing things that do not exist.” The workflow was interrupted, and the output subsequently destroyed, considered to have been based on stolen ideas originally authored by the plants and flowers surrounding the team. 

Commissioned for Home Works 8 

Ali Eyal (b. 1994, Baghdad) whose work spans across different media, He holds an undergraduate degree from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. His practice aims to explore the complex relationship between community and politics, using different media such as video, photography and painting, in order to examine social attitudes, particularly in the context of Baghdad and Iraq. Since 2011, Eyal has participated in several group exhibitions in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, the US, Greece, and Cuba, among others.