To explain why he used quilts and patchwork in his latest artworks shown at Rossi & Rossi in Hong Kong, Fereydoun Ave started by describing the traditional Iranian domestic scene: There are only mattresses and blankets in the center of the tent, comfortably surrounded by cushions. The tent itself is a huge blanket that shelters dwellers from harsh winters. One blanket—called the lahaf—is elevated above a brazier so that people can sit around it and keep warm. The pre-modern lahaf was not only the center of the tent, but was also the “social center where a lot of things happened,” as the artist put it. When nasty weather swept through, outdoor entertainment was replaced by cozy gatherings around the warm lahaf. Friends and families chatted above the blanket while they played footsie underneath the cover—“What happens on top of the quilt is the public, and what happens under the quilt is the private,” said Ave. The lahaf is a pliable boundary between the personal and the communal, and Ave explores this theme in his “Lahaf” series (2015–17).

Rossi & Rossi gallery exhibited nine of Ave’s lahafs in its Hong Kong space. Each is larger than one square meter, with some measuring three meters in length. There were also several of Ave’s collage and miniature works in a smaller exhibition room shown together with one work by Cy Twombly, the artist’s mentor. The name of the exhibition, “Shah Abbas and his Page Boy,” is derived from a 17th century Islamic miniature painting that is part of the Louvre’s collection, Shah Abbas I and his Page by Muhammad Qasim Musavvir, which provides a glimpse into the great Shah’s private life: Though Shah Abbas I gained notoriety for killing and mutilating his sons, and was considered a formidable conqueror, Musavvir’s painting reveals the Shah’s tender side as he lovingly enfolds his cup bearer in his arms. Ave pointed out that Islamic miniature paintings typically carry a monochrome background, though the characters’ costumes would always be depicted with extravagant details and scintillating colors. He appropriated this aesthetic, so his quilts feature large fields of plain fabrics with a collage of decorative patches emanating from the center. The theme of Ave’s “Lahaf” series—the pliable rift between public, national discourse and personal, private personas that can be rendered in a painting as well as on soft, supple lahafs—is thus encapsulated in the show’s borrowed title.

Another layer of meaning is encoded in collaged images of naked men stitched onto the patchwork. Just below the red cushion cover in Lahaf 18, there are two newspaper pictures of Iranian wrestlers wearing skin-tight leotards, the images stained by muted Naples yellow paint. Ave said that wresting is the national sport of Iran—usually performed on blankets or mats. During a wrestling match, one is expected to be barely clothed, but nudity is strictly censored off the mat. Curiously, in the center of Lahaf 19 (2017), there is a black-and-white image of a naked man, similar to an image cut from pornography judging by the black bar covering his nipples and white paint splashed over his genitalia. Even when it comes to pornography, blankets come into play: The artist said that after flipping through a magazine in which such a shot might appear, one needs to hide it beneath their blanket. By weaving together the exposure of skin in the culturally acceptable context of wrestling with censored pornographic pictures in the same artwork, the artist intimates a clash between the official narrative of Iran’s national image and private lives shielded by the lahaf.

Ave believes that artistic expression of political discontent is complex and delicate, as opposed to the directness and confrontation found in protest slogans. The resistance of the harsh public censorship is woven into the fabric of personal experience. Sewing naked pictures into the works of “Lahaf” shows the artist’s assertiveness in pursuing a freer public domain, expressed through patchworks of the artist’s remembrance of things past.

Fereydoun Ave’s “Shah Abbas and His Page Boy” is on view at Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong, until July 29, 2017.

To read more of ArtAsiaPacific’s articles, visit our Digital Library.