Arash Nassiri's 'A Bug's Life' Exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery Explores Allegory and Scale

Arash Nassiri presents his first institutional solo exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery in London, featuring the 21-minute film 'A Bug's Life.' The work follows a wooden puppet-bug navigating domestic spaces at night, with scenes shot from low angles to manipulate scale. The bug interacts with objects like a circular window resembling moonlight, a bathroom sink where it creates a water pool, and a light bulb that causes its disintegration. The exhibition, co-commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery, Fluentum in Berlin, and Fondation Pernod Ricard in Paris, runs until March 22, 2026. Nassiri's film references architectural history, specifically 'Persian Palaces' built in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles by Iranian émigrés after 1979, with architect Hamid Omrani consulting. These homes blended American Modernist and French-Rococo styles, facing local restrictions by 2004. The film employs allegory, drawing on Walter Benjamin's theories and allusions to Aesop's fable and Pixar's 'A Bug's Life,' yet maintains interpretive instability. Installation lighting extends the film's mood into the gallery, with a visitor noted improvising dance under spotlights. The work explores themes of belonging, alienation, and the provisional nature of meaning.