Ghazaleh Avarzamani
Particular Good Game for Self Punishment

February 10 to March 13, 2021

Galerie Nicolas Robert is pleased to present Ghazaleh Avarzamani’s installation, Particular Good Game for Self-Punishment. The project explores how things in life are staged, the rules that govern this staging, and the overlap between reality and illusion. The work references the politics of game and, more specifically, its rituals of spectatorship. This project is part of a larger project that explores correlations between theatre, games and betting culture — specifically, cockfighting. One of the oldest spectator sports, cockfighting is a blood game deeply embedded within various religious belief systems and religious worship. Fighting cocks are specifically bred for their aggressiveness and ability to maintain the attack, despite severe injury, dehydration, exhaustion or broken bones. Two birds meet in combat until one die or is critically injured, and the surviving bird wins. As a result, gamecocks are bred and modified to play a game that benefits overseeing spectators. This project, at large, employs cockfighting as a metaphor to explore the notions of gameness, excitement, masculinity and control embedded in our contemporary era.

Through visual metaphor, it leads us to the fundamental questions of our existence within society: Who are we? What roles do we play? What position do we occupy through our roles?

Ghazaleh Avarzamani (b. 1980, Tehran) is currently based in Toronto. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins, London, UK. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the Koffler Gallery, Toronto; Ab-Anbar Gallery, Tehran; Asia House, London; and Light Gallery, London, Frieze Sculpture Park London, Bocconi Gallery, Milan; Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium Museum, Norway. She is the Winner of  the 2019 Ontario Exhibition of The Year Award/OAAG, Winner of Aga Khan Museum and Delfina foundation collaborative residency.