Anahita Norouzi
The Circuit of Dispossession
July 27 to August 19, 2023
Galerie Nicolas Robert Toronto is pleased to present The Circuit of Dispossession by Anahita Norouzi. Incorporating a series of glass sculptures and a textile installation, the exhibition investigates how botany became important to the commercial and territorial expansion of colonial powers during the 19th and 20th centuries. Norouzi’s research traces the journey of certain plants from once colonized countries to the West, where they were prized as ornamental species until they were no longer useful to these political and economic trades. The exhibition as a whole honours the arduousness of the migratory journey, the scattering of seeds, and the preservation of cultural heritage far away from one’s homeland. It invites viewers to appreciate the efforts that necessitate adaptability and acclimatization.
From the Other Side is the outcome of a collaboration with refugees from once-colonized countries who came to Canada. It comprises five delicate, hand-made glass sculptures, suspended from the ceiling – materially and metaphorically linked to the fragile state of a displaced person – representing “non-native” plants. Each of these plants (originally from the participants’ home country), initially brought into Canada because of their beauty, are now categorized as “alien and invasive” by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They are among the plants that have gone wild, bursting through asphalt and growing in alleys and along roadsides. This project explores the legacies of botanical exploration, plant-collecting, and documentation inherited from colonial scientific expeditions, and includes in-depth fieldwork with refugees and immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
Palimpsests of Unseen Pasts is comprised of a series of large anthotype prints on textile. Images of pressed Persian Iris specimens held at Western herbariums are altered to remove all superimposed information, leaving only the anatomical contours of the plant. Anthotypes of the modified images were then created with a natural dye made from saffron. By embroidering color swatches into each sheet, Norouzi also reintroduced the original polychromatic palette of the different species. On top of the yellow prints, she replaced scientific projections with archival findings, adding a translucent fabric layer that carries evidence of Western interventions in each province where the species originated.
Norouzi’s work has been shown nationally and internationally, most recently at BIENALESUR, the International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America (Buenos Aires), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), and soon at Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec and Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. She has received numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, most notably, the Grantham Foundation Creation Award, Liz Crockford Artist Fund Award, and the Vermont Studio Center Merit. She is the winner of the Contemporary art award of the Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec (2023), winner of the Impressions residency at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2022), is a shortlisted artist at the Sobey Art Award (2023), and finalist in the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Award for pieces shown at the Henry Moore Gallery in London and in Dubai.