The two-face Mirrors of Aref Montazeri

Aref Montazeri in conversation with Hania Afifi

I met with Aref Montazeri at his Tehran studio via Zoom, two weeks ahead of his debut solo exhibition in the UAE. Held at the Leila Heller Gallery booth in Art Dubai, Mirror, will introduce Montazeri’s meticulously fragmented works to the art crowd during exceptionally challenging times on both the economic and political fronts. 

HANIA AFIFI: 
Why mirrors? 
What are you trying to say to the viewer of your work?

AREF MONTAZERI: 
We always regard the mirror as a reflective device that mediates between the I and the non-I when reviewed through a Lacanian lense.  Only when you look at the back of the mirror do you regard it as an entity of its own right. You can say that the mirror regains its autonomy when you view it from behind. I could see how those keen eyes would ponder the physical and symbolic properties of an object so readily available in our homes and so pressed him further.

HA:
Is this why you coat part of the mirror fragments with opaque paint?

AM: 
The navy blue surface is the reverse side of the mirror. I do not coat anything.  Since it is already opaque, it does not reflect an image and therefore you will see it for what it is, a mirror. 

HA: 
There is something so poetic about your work. Is anyone in your family an artist?

AM: 
Funny you should ask. My father is a well-established musician in Iran.  He founded Sheida Music Group with Mohamed Reza Shajarian and Mohamed Reza Lotfi and established Aref Music Group with Shahram Nazeri.  He plays the kamancheh (a traditional Iranian bowed string instrument) and composes music. He travels worldwide on music tours.  My brother is also a musician.  Like my father, he plays and composes music. So, yes, I was born into an artistic family.

HA: 
Did you accompany your father on his tours?

AM: 
No.  As a child I never had the chance to travel with him since I was a student at school and after that I was just preoccupied with life, work and my career.   However, he played music for me as a lullaby to go to sleep.  I am sure that his music has influenced me on some subliminal level.  Today, when I am working, I listen to music. From the early morning until late evening.  I design with music, I fabricate with music and fortunately all my colleagues here in the studio also work with music.

HA: 
Clearly music is part of your life. Can you describe to me how you approach a new project?

AM: 
There is a criteria set which I consider and study when designing my works.  I call them my design apparatus.  Those are Narrative; which is arguably the most important, Technique and Material.  I don’t want to follow the ornamental approach in mirror art that I worked on for five years with Monir Farmanfarmaian.  I designed and fabricated over 60 pieces for her studio where we developed knots that can be joined to create magnificent Islamic patterns with mirrors.  It was an incredible experience.  However, when I began my own studio and designed my own artworks, I wanted to use an approach that was unique to me and which reflected my own ethos.  For me, the mirror always follows Narrative.

HA: 
So you wanted to develop a fresh approach to this classic art form?

AM: 
I was not keen to follow on the traditional forms that we have in our mosques and palaces.  My outlook on mirror art is different to that in my native land.  I know there is a trend across the Middle East to connect all artistic endeavours to cultural, social and even political elements so that an artist becomes defined by their geography.  But I don’t have such reading of artworks.  I believe that artists create works from within to express their own thoughts and ideas.  I also believe that art has always responded to a global condition which is why I do not want to be identified as an Iranian artist or a Middle Eastern artist or even a Tehranian artist.  I am a contemporary artist.

HA: 
So, you don’t think that Art should have a cultural identity or is it only the case for your own artwork?

AM: 
No its only for my artwork.  I want to detach my artwork from the traditional pattern mirror art.  My designs are universal, and they do not succumb to a particular cultural identity.  There are many artists who recreate the traditional forms and try to update them, and they are creating amazing artworks.  

HA: 
So you want to disassociate yourself from the dominant Islamic art aesthetic celebrated by Iran and prefer to be connected to pre-Islamic Persian art?

AM: 
I think art-making is personal.  What connects the artistic practice of one era to the next is the technique in realising ideas.  But the ideas themselves are specific to the time they have been conceived.  I know that what I am saying may sound a little absurd, but I don’t see a link between the past, present and future in art practice besides the technique.  The ideas are very much of the present and not influenced by the past nor will they affect the future.

Montazeri’s strong stance against artist labelling by nationality or region, prompted me to push him further to describe his working process.

HA:
Fair enough, let’s revisit your personal approach to art making for which you designed unique tools.  Can you walk me through the steps.

AM:
I develop a concept for a collection of say 14 pieces.  So, I create a narrative or idea then think of the technique and explore the materials.  Once the collection is completed, I start a new one.  I don’t like repeating the same idea.  For example, this collection that I am showing at Leila Heller Gallery was inspired by my own past.  When I was 15, my parents were getting a divorce and when my mother left the family house, she left a few items behind.  I was missing her so much that when I yearned to be with her, I would put on the clothes she left behind and ponder the reflection in the mirror; feeling her presence and hearing her voice talking to me.  For a long time, I never spoke of the incident as you can imagine the stigma associated with wearing women’s clothes in a culture with strictly defined gender boundaries.  However, I came to embrace this memory as it made me realise that your reflection in the mirror can be of something beyond yourself.  And I loved this capacity of mirrors, to create a parallel fact which is as real as what is being reflected and yet as close as possible and at the same time completely different.  So, as you can see how the Narrative in my work is not formed by geography, but rather by a very personal and psychological experience.

After this fascinating revelation, I decided to lighten our discussion and learn about some of his favourite things.

HA:
Who is your favourite artist?

AM: 
I like Pierre Soulages, CY Twombley, Nigel Cooke and Julie Mehertu and for sculptors, I really admire Tony Cragg’s work, whom I met in person.  I found him to be a kind and inspirational human being.

HA: 
So, you can derive inspiration from other artists?

AM: 
Absolutely.

HA: 
Favourite Museum? Favourite artwork? Favourite Writer? Favourite city?

AM: 
MOMA; Embodiment of ‘Um’ by Takashi Murakami; Allen de Botton; Monte Carlo because everything is so neat.  But if I want to live somewhere when I want to retire, I would say Beaulieu-sur-Mer in the South of France.

HA: 
Where does Aref go when he wants to think?

AM: 
My studio

HA: 
Indoors or Outdoors?

AM: 
Outdoors

HA: 
Cityscape/Landscape/Seascape?

AM:
Landscape

With this light note, I thanked him and his studio assistant Parsa Hashamipoor for their time and the virtual tour of the studio.  Then I sat at my desk and reflected upon his words. Montazeri contemporarised the ancient Mirror Art whose output can be seen in many of the harams, palaces and mosques of the Safavid and Qajar eras across ancient Persia. Whilst they cut and shaped the reflective mirror surface into bedazzling geometric patterns that ornate the halls and ceilings of their most prized buildings, Montazeri cuts and manipulates both the reflective and reverse sides of the mirror to create stand-alone sculptures that can be admired and reflected upon for their own narrative, materiality and conception technique.  The mirror has always had two faces and Montazeri artworks remind us of this reality.  His visual aesthetic is indeed universal and cannot be traced to his cultural heritage, but there is no doubt in the fact that he is a young contemporary artist who grew up in Tehran and learned the ancient techniques of mirror cutting and placement from the old Persian masters.