RSVP (optional but encouraged)
Join PS1 artists-in-residence Unche Studio for the inauguration of their new public artwork “This Too Shall Pass” on the north lawn of PS1 Close House.
Unche Studio will share the process and concept of the work, and attendees are welcome (but not required) to share a text or poem related to the theme of the work — all are invited to gather and reflect together about the temporary essence of joy, fear, sorrow or anything at all.
Supported by the City of Iowa City Public Art Advisory Committee matching grant program and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Farsi word “آنچه” translates to “that which” in English. Unche embodies a sense of ambiguity, inclusiveness, and the potential for all that is unseen, unknown, and yet to come. As an artist/designer collective founded in 2019, Unche uses art, design, and theory to create physical and virtual installations not to create bridges that connect polarities but to demonstrate the existence of gaps between things. Afrooz Partovi, Ramyar Vala, and Rambod Vala as the founders of the collective situate themselves within this in-between-ness and out of which generate production, develop lines of flight and new possibilities for engaging with alterity. The struggle to produce, rather than arrive at an understanding is at the cornerstone of Unche’s practice.
https://unche.studio
IG: @unche.studio
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Historically it is written that a King in ancient Persia gathered the kingdom’s sages and wise men together with the task of finding an adage that is true at all times. In some documents it is written that the adage had to be carved in the ring worn by the Sultan/king, and that Sufi poet, Attar of Nishapur, was amongst those fulfilling the task. The group presented the phrase “ This too shall pass” to emphasize on the temporality of all events, debates, emotions, stories and even rulings. The adage aims to bring joy in times of sorrow and melancholy in times of satisfaction as a reminder of the ephemerality of all conditions, good or evil.
In the original written language, Farsi, the adage “بگذرد نیز این. “has twelve characters with the dot at the end of the saying. For us at Unche Studio, the nature of this phrase and the meaning it refers to has formed the shape of a circular table with the twelve number of the clock around it. As a daily object, the table is a reminder of the transitory state of time — the object behind which the passage of time takes place, whether in the form of dining, meeting, discussion, studying, planning or else.