Amirhossein Bayani discusses political art, migration, and materiality in Canvas interview
Amirhossein Bayani, an artist born in Iran, reflects on how political upheaval and war shaped his consciousness, citing the 1979 revolution and an eight-year conflict as formative experiences. His recent exhibition, The Narrative of Minorities at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, featured the series Wandering Toward the Meaning of Home (2025), exploring forced migration and the search for belonging. Bayani prefers working with wood for its freedom and natural feel, despite technical limitations for larger pieces. In The Season of Ruin’s Remembrance (2023), figurative statues inspired by Iranian history honor protest movements like Women, Life, Freedom, placed in natural landscapes to universalize their struggle. He views nature as a complex duality of beauty and violence, serving as a model for human imagination. The interview, originally published in Canvas 120: The Traces Left, delves into themes of power, emancipation, and time as history.
Key facts
- Amirhossein Bayani was born in Iran during a politically charged period.
- The 1979 revolution and an eight-year war deeply influenced his work.
- His exhibition The Narrative of Minorities was held at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery.
- The series Wandering Toward the Meaning of Home (2025) explores migration and home.
- Bayani prefers wood over canvas for its freedom, though canvas is used for larger works.
- The Season of Ruin’s Remembrance (2023) features statues inspired by Iranian history.
- These statues honor the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement.
- Nature is described as having binary oppositions of beauty and violence.
Entities
Artists
- Amirhossein Bayani
Institutions
- Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery
- Canvas
Locations
- Iran
- Middle East
- Netherlands
- Sweden