Opening at Aaran Projects on 11th May 2018
Until 8th June 2018

Aylar Shahbazi uses her considerable skills as a painter to find the exact latitude and longitude ‎coordinates along with the elevation above sea level, to pinpoint her existence within her city. She ‎draws and paints herself in settings and with motifs that are familiar and are intended to explain her ‎life in the city that is home to literally millions of people. Complexities of life in large urban centers and ‎artists own anxieties are integral parts of these large scale paintings and drawings. The lines cast the ‎identity of the artist in a narrative form and the eternal question of who are we is in the center of these ‎finely crafted paintings.‎
In her installation of land marks of the city, she shows her attachment and association with the city ‎that we all love to hate and simultaneously can’t bear to leave. She decided one day to explain to ‎herself what she likes and dislikes in the city and the result is the Mise-en-scène that invites everyone ‎to recall their own memories. With linear and simplified lines, reminiscent of sketches of architects, ‎she creates a space that allows for visual stories to take shape. Inside this story board everything is ‎possible and all kinds of narratives can develop within its confines; a page from a pop-up book that ‎allows the viewer to roam around. She deconstructs the familiar haphazard architecture of the city and ‎rearranges them to her liking and makes them accessible in their new size.‎
Aylar Shahbazi has managed to tell her own story within the frames of her canvases and amazing “cut-‎outs”, and her enthusiastic approach and dialogue with the city is exemplary and an interesting way to ‎come to grips with a city that is chaotic and ugly and at the same time is Home.‎