Reports & thoughts from Tehran based art space: parkingallery by its Art Director Amirali Ghasemi ...

Monday, November 21, 2005

Iranian Poster Exhibition in Ogaki, Japan

From Posterpage:
Iranian Poster Exhibition in Ogaki
October 29 – November 26, 2005; Kanazawa University
Ogaki Poster Museum, Japan
Noboru Matsuura, Professor of Kanazawa University and the director of Ogaki Poster Museum invited Iranian poster designers to Ogaki Poster Museum for the Iranian Poster Exhibition in Japan. The exhibition is scheduled to open on October 29, 2005 through November 26, 2005.

Five international invitational poster exhibitions were held in this museum since now, that the well-known poster designers will take part in it from all around the world. Prof. Matsuura organized three periodical exhibitions: Polish Posters, 1999; Chinese Contemporary Posters, 2001 and 65 years Cuban Posters in 2003. He is also organizing Iranian Poster Exhibition now. This exhibition was organized by cooperation of the 5th Color.

He says: "Iranian posters have been drawing international attention in these years. This is mainly because people are taking a great interest in the Persian and Islamic culture. In other words the posters symbolize the fantastic culture of a specific country. I always think "Posters are art and message" and have introduced the masterpieces of posters from such countries as Poland, the United States, ex Soviet Union, Germany, Finland, Czech & Slovakia, Switzerland, France, China and Cuba. For this time of particular occasion I am thinking to introduce the posters of your country, Iran."

The list of Iranian designers are (click on the names to see the posters):
Majid Abbasi, Reza Abedini, Farzad Adibi, Morteza Akoochekian, Tahamtan Aminian, Majid Azadmanesh, Edik Boghosian, Maryam Enayati, Vahid Erfanian, Siamak Felizadeh, Farhad Fozouni, Amirali Ghasemi, Ebrahim Haghighi,Pedram Harby, Abdullah Kaviani, Ali Khorshidpour, Behrad Javanbakht, Saed Meshki, Morteza Momeyez, Davood Morgan, Alireza Mostafazadeh Ebrahimi, Iman M. Raad, Mehdi Saeedi, Bijan Sayfouri, Firouz Shafei, Ghobad Shiva, Farid Yahaghi.

The catalogue of exhibition was published by organizer. Please see the web site of the Ogaki Poster Museum for more information, and The 5th Color for pictures from the opening.
See the link in Perisan weblog in kargah.com

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Q&A with Typo magazine Issue 15 2005

Present Iranian typography is different from western design. What do you think is the main difference between western and Iranian typography?

I believe one of the main differences is that the smallest typographic unit in Iranian typography is “word” as opposed to the “letter” in the western typography. Therefore the Iranian designer not only considers the relationships between the words but the different possibilities and relationships among the letters within a word as well.

In some countries, graphic design has very positive feedback from the general public. In others, it doesn’t draw much attention, at all. How does the Iranian society value the work of graphic designers?
The Iranian society has historically been and still is very much a literature based society visual are in the second or ever the third position in term of communication. I would say although the designers in the past couple of decades have been making an effort in spreading the visual culture; however the lack of emphasis on this field in education has raised a generation neutral towards visuals.


The development of western graphic design is strongly influenced by technology. Today, this mainly means computers. What is your approach to the computer as a tool?
For me its like a big helping hand, as my I receive my inspirations from the contemporary life of our society & my sources are mainly my digital photos from urban surfaces & found type objects that they need to be touched & edited to be ready for work, my generation stood up & started its career in the age of computer but I used to mix the hand & the new tool together to create my design atmosphere more personal & unique.


What are the roots of your work? To what extend are you influenced by contemporary western design? Do you adjust your work to the taste of western audience?
Contemporary Iranian cultural & social life which includes all sorts of opposition, high and low, popular and elite and western and eastern ethics and global.

I am and am not. I use western design to learn from but the western design doesn’t set my aesthetic taste.

No! To be honest I don’t care if they like it or not. But I have to mention that after nine /eleven as the political aspects & the western medias grabbed world’s attention to middle east & I think it had positive & negative sides for our design in one hand every design/culture product from these part of the world praised & celebrated by western audience, in other hand as these are waves that are coming & going, the proficiency in choosing good design from poor design is getting harder & harder… this specially can be marked out while we are talking about typography (here Persian typography).

What is the role of women in contemporary Iranian design?

What is the like in the rest of professional fields; women are becoming more active in the field of design as well. However unfortunately their voices are not as much heard because of the male oriented society in which we live in. I have to mention as women have powerful participation in illustration field that most of the design studios are directed by men.


Thanks to Nazgol Ansarinia for Editing my answers!
Follow the link & you see (or download) the PDF vesrion of the 15th issue of typo magazine including Reza Abedini's lecture on persian type & typography...

Sunday, October 30, 2005

2 Posters by Rana & bahador shojapour;EEM exhibition

I took this picture at the opening of eem exhibition in arya gallery...2 Posters by Rana & Bahador Shojapour

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Newsblog on parkingallery.com


I added a newsblog to parkingallery ...
I mean I replaced the old hand made plain html version with a blog!! You still can reach it via this linkThere some coming events That I will write about... just as a warm up, there will be a poster exhibition in parkigallery soon!!!...
Stay tuned!!
PS: I could never made the revolution in side parkingallery without my old friend Shervin Afshar !Thanks Shervin!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Parkingallery.com's 4th anniversary

Its Parkingallery.com's 4th anniversary... So silent, so alone, after a 1 month fight to renew the Domain name & find a porper web hosting, the site is still on the old server, I hate Iranian service providers, I spent 60$ to renew the domain this year but after passing 2 middle hand companies i just could register it for one year...
Any way parkingallery will be updated soon as soon as I can transfer it to the new server , we will have new artists plus new projects which I will let you know but I know that no one read my blog...
these are some letters that will be lost in huge dark networks ahead
be tuned!!!

Friday, July 22, 2005

Friday, July 08, 2005

Parkingallery: Exhibition & Event Reviews

Group Portrait exhibition by Shahab Fotouhi, Neda Razavipour, Jinoos Tagizadeh, Barbad Golshiri Behrang Samadzadegan June 24- July 6 Khak Art Gallery, TehranAssemblage; It wasn't an outstanding exhibition at all! I can easily call it an assemblage; by knowing this fact which some of the participating artists owe a big debt to circle of tehranavenue.com e-magazine for their support promotion & some other contribute frequently for the magazine.

While Jinoos tagizadeh & Behrang Samadzadegan are repeating their semi successful careers in previous exhibitions, Heavy influence of literature on Barbad Golshiri's artworks never left him alone; Fascinated by himself to death standing with his funny award to pose all that he has in his hands, plus quoting is an almost old-fashion trick these days (any one can read philosophy books!), that it seems that he can't can't avoid because of his celebrity-like success during past two years; Yes they are self portraits but although the message is lost & they can't go any further than large format printed show offs ... but to be honest we have to wait & see the artist's collection "odyssey - I ".

Census by Shahab Fotouhi & Neda Razavipour was made to be shown in Colombia University few years ago & it's a little bit carelessly edited: "We still have a bunch of unused materials ..." says Neda Razavipour. The whole story was filmed during their big big project with atisaz residential complex. Masoume Mozafari's old portraits can't connect visitor's mind with any other artworks in the exhibition.they are as good as always but what they are doing here among these so called post modern artworks?!

The curator(s) the exhibition can't be proud on this unless believing (or claiming) that these are an un-perceptible variety of pieces ranging from rubbish to fine artworks under title of a portrait exhibition!

Thursday, June 02, 2005

"Word for word" video Installation by Amirali Ghasemi (installed in azad art gallery ,Tehran

Parkingallery.com; Transition :Installation in Azad Art Gallery TehranA light torch was given to every visitor who wanted to participate in the installation, then the attendees were asked to stand in front of the camera while a video collection of random short clips, taken of Tehran's flickering neon lights (taken in the streets from restaurants, shops, supermarkets & ...) was played in the background.The result was recorded & screened live on the other screen. The combination of random people who frequently participated & agreed to stand on the spot and comercial neon words created & introduced an enormous wide range of new expressions & meanings.
Amirali Ghasemi BA in Graphic Design Azad University , Faculty of Art Tehran

Work experience:

• Graphic design: since 1998

• Photography: digital & analouge since 1997

• Director of Parkingallery art space since 1998

• Web design & photography instruction in the Parkingallery Studio since 2000

• Co-production of 4 short documentary films 2000-2005

• Design of Meera band's back projection clips, Feb. 2003

• Design of Dna band's back projection clips, Oct 2003

• Design of 127 band's back projection clips, May 2004 (with Reza Haeri)

Exhibitions:

30 group & solo exhibitions in Tehran Art Galleries , including 5 drawing exhibitions & 12 graphic design exhibitions & 6 video installations

Awards:

- Fifth Prize of the 2001 Tokoha CG Art (Computer Generated Art) Exhibition for the “Portrait of Forough (an Iranian Poetess)”, Jan. 2002, Tokoha Art Museum , Tokoha , Japan

- Second Prize of the Web and Multimedia section for the design of the site: “www.iranianprofile.com,” at the 7th Biennial of Iranian Graphic Designers' Artworks, March 2002

Participation:

• Participation in Annex section of the 8th International Iranian Photo Exhibition 1998, Tehran Contemporary Art Museum , Tehran , IRAN

• Participation in ‘Under 21 Year-old' & ‘Experimental' sections of the First Tehran International Contemporary Drawing Exhibition, Dec.1999/Jan. 2000, Tehran Contemporary Art Museum, Tehran, IRAN

• Participation in the First Self Promotional Posters Exhibition by Iranian Graphic Designers, Spring 2001, Tehran Contemporary Art Museum , Tehran , IRAN

• Participation in the 2001 Tokoha CG Art Exhibition, Tokoha Museum of Art , Tokoha , JAPAN

• Participation in the 7th Biennial of Iranian Graphic Designers' artworks, February/March 2002 Niavaran Cultural Center Art Gallery , Tehran , IRAN

• Participation in the 9th Competition – Exhibition of Students' Posters in the frame of the 13th Festival of Posters at Chaumont: «Etudiants, Tous à Chaumont» with the title « L'Image du Monde/Le monde des Images» (World of Images/Image of the World), June 2002, Chaumont , France

• Dancing Fan in Iran 's Pavilion in Venice as Selected Collection by TMCA Sep 2002

• Participation in 2002 German poster museum exhibition: "Children Are The Rhythm of the World" in Essen , Germany [see poster here].

• Participation in 2002 1st Korean International Poster Biennial cultural poster, Nov. 2002 [see poster here]

• Participation in 10th Competition – Exhibition of Students' Posters in the frame of the 14th Festival of Posters at Chaumont: «Etudiants, Tous à Chaumont» under the title «Drugs: Pleasures, Hazards, Addictions», June 2003, Chaumont , France

• Participation in Un Cri Persan (graphistes d' iran ): Persian Shout (Iranian graphic design exhibition) as an IGDS member, Chaumont , France , Sep 2003 [see posters here]

• International Art Blog Online exhibition organized by the centre of attention gallery London , Sep 13th - Oct 13th,2003

• Participation in 8th Tehran International Poster Biennial February/March 2004, Khial Art Gallery , Tehran , IRAN [see poster here]

• Participation in the 9th Tehran International Photography Biennial June July 2004, Khial Art Gallery , Tehran , IRAN.

Featured in Art Magazines such as Bidoun (UAE), Freize (UK), Etapes (France) , (2+3)D (Polland), Typo (Czech Republic), Neshan (Iran) Andishe-e-Iranshar (Iran) & Tasvir :Image Of the year (Iran) .And Iranian Newspapers such as Akhbar, Entekhab & Iran newspaper.

website: amiralighasemi.com

Monday, April 25, 2005

Lomo LC-A // the show is over // the show must go on

Lomo LC-A // the show is over // the show must go onThe Bad News: Lomo LC-A Production has stopped

Listen closely and take a seat. Here is the bad news first. The original and one-and-only Lomo LC-A camera has been taken out of production. Some of the most beautiful items ever created (the original VW bug, Constellation, Tupolev, Concorde and Illushin airplanes, Polaroid SX-70's, Olivetti typewriters, Lambretta scooters, Commodore 64 computers, Wacker Innsbruck, etc.) have disappeared despite the enormous love and respect that they command. According to the LC-A's Russian factory (LOMO PLC), the LC-A has proven too expensive to continue given their existing structure. As they no longer produce any cameras outside of the LC-A, they lost key manufacturing synergies. Engineers and craftsmen experienced in 35mm cameras are a dying breed. Wages and energy costs have skyrocketed. Our beloved LC-A consists of 450 individual parts, and is extremely labor-intensive to construct. The days of its precise assembly by hand have come to an end and its production is no longer cost-effective within their new structure.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Just After Boring Holidays

I'm back again I'm working on a new weblog in persian too, that's why I'm not writing here often. But forgive me I promise to update this on time & here is some NEWS
I have my Yellow poster for our video exhibition in Chamount's International competition ...
I'm working on my website to a total re-new I will be available soon I made a set of new poster with that illustrations which I MADE in Feb .We will have 3 exhibitions in spring
2 poster exhibitions in the holy city of Qom in a caltural center & another in Isfahan's contemporaray art museum ... the 1st one is realy excites me as Qom is like Vatican with a totaly religious atmosphere I'm looking forward to see how they think about our posters ....
we are adding some new poster to that CHARGOUSH exhibition which we had in Mashhad ...
& Reza abedini is on tour around the world .... here & there in workshops &
exhibitions ...
The other exhibition includes some video artworks & some installations ... We are 3 graphic designers, one video artist & one musician ... I'm working on a video artwork based on neon types in Tehran oposite to some of my photos the other designers are NAZGOL ANSARI NIA ( I will post A page for her soon on parkingallery she is very clever & talented she studied in UK & USA & now she teaches in a univercity in Tehran ) & Iman RAAD

Live from the IRIS

Live from the IRISNina & Amirali

Thursday, February 10, 2005

My feelings

I heard many good news this week but I feel very bad, I normaly don't write about my feelings here just links & news some how but parkingallery need some new artists & new energy as fanoosphoto.com is uploading a page for every young talented photographer in parkingallery I dont know whats the use my visitors are more & i have better design acualy every artist has his/her page with specific design not just uniforms, any way I feel that I'm loosing them .... I'll keep working till I die....

Friday, January 14, 2005

Rene Wanner's Poster Page / News

Rene Wanner's Poster Page / News A poster by Amirali Ghasemi & Iman Raad on the 1st page of Rene wanner's Posterpage.ch ....
Thanks Rene!

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Parkingallery: Exhibition & Event Reviews

Parkingallery: Exhibition & Event Reviews
Chargoush exhibition in Mashhad

[CHAR-GOOSH] Group Poster Exhibition by Reza Abedini, Morteza Akoochakian, Maryam Enayati, Farhad Fozouni, Amirali Ghasemi, Behrad Javanbakht, Iman Raad, Reyhaneh Sheikhbahaei, Soha Shirvani in Mashad 29 dec. 2004- 6 jan. 2005 (9- 17Dey1383 ) -9 am-8pm

Opening: 29 dec.-5 pm


Address:Shariati complex, Sera Adabiat,Mashad


SEE the parkingallery's review here!