Ali Zakeri, The Eliminate Or The Sons Of God Series 35, 2013

For years I have been healing something within myself by watching TV shows and videos showing violent, combat sports; I tend to associate the frustration of fighters in losing and winning with a form of succession and a life cycle; bodies that fall and rise and … at the moment of seeing these clenched fists and ruptured cheeks, I calm myself with the thought that the world is full of fights and conflicts between two humans; two brothers; to the point that, in order to avoid being eliminated, one human has to eliminate the other.
In the present series, I have attempted to become closer to my intention by avoiding a superficial representation of a sport or an entertainment and offering a painterly reading instead, so that I will produce tableaux which, while dealing with the physical aspect of elimination, would not be limited to this metaphor. The human in these works battles and the body which remains of him is something beyond his mere corporality. These days, as the works for the current exhibition have been completed, I ask myself: isn’t painting itself fighting after all? We paint and we definitely fight to avoid elimination, and in the end, whether we are winners or losers, we view studios and painting as arenas for survival and for telling our own story, without thinking of eliminating others.

The Eliminated or The Sons of God - Part: 2

The Eliminated or The Sons of God - Part: 2

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Ali Zakeri b. 1959

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Ali Zakeri