<div><p>Now showing at gb agency in Paris, her small, dreamlike works capture the emotions of those forced into exile&nbsp;</p></div><p><strong></strong></p>

Ingrid Luquet-Gad

Iranian artist Tirdad Hashemi draws inspiration and comfort from a nursery rhyme

<p>Tirdad Hashemi, born in 1991 in Tehran, creates small-scale works in colored pencil and oil pastel that encapsulate the state of weightlessness between sleeping and dreaming. Her snakelike stroke on the canvas, hints at bodies while leaving things unsaid. Colors jump out at you, imbued with the unpredictable violence of natural disasters. In the middle of a peaceful silence, reality suddenly surges forth, submerging everything in its path.</p><p>Hashemi’s work has the same symbolic quality as fairytales. Even scenes of daily life, drawn from her everyday surroundings, take on a universal meaning, slipping over into fantasy with just a few details. For ‘The Trapped Lullabies’, her second solo exhibition at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1561/gb-agency">gb agency</a> in Paris, the artist was inspired by a childhood nursery rhyme meant to provide comfort in the face of death. She was reminded of it when her native country was once again rocked by protests and a brutal crackdown. </p>

<p>In Berlin she formed her own community, her chosen queer family. It was there that she started working with her partner Soufia Erfanian, another exile from Iran. Together they create drawings that enable them to express their feelings without the need for words. The main series in the exhibition,&nbsp;‘The Blue Poisoning’&nbsp;(2022), comes from this body of work. The recurring use of blue represents the sense of powerlessness at being so far away. Water is everywhere in the exhibition: It creates insurmountable borders, draws itself up into giant waves as terrifying as tsunamis and falls into rivers of tears suggesting a brief sense of calm.</p><p>Faced with the ups and downs of history, even safe spaces risk being transformed into prisons. Hashemi weaves solitude and intimacy, survival and fragility, bringing them together like two sides of the same coin. </p>

<p>Tirdad Hashemi&nbsp;is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1561/gb-agency">gb agency</a> (Paris).</p><p>‘Tirdad Hashemi: The Trapped Lullabies’<br />Until March 11, 2023<br />gb agency, Paris</p><p>Ingrid Luquet-Gad is an art critic and PhD candidate based in Paris. She is the arts editor of <em>Les Inrockuptibles</em>, a contributing editor at <em>Spike art magazine, </em>and a writer for <em>Flash Art.</em></p><p>English translation: Catherine Bennett.</p><p>Published on January 25, 2023.</p><p>Caption for full-bleed image:&nbsp;Tirdad Hashemi, <em>I assure you sir, I assure you, that she is a good civilized foreigner, sir</em>, 2022.&nbsp;Photograph by Aurélien Mole.&nbsp;Courtesy of the artist&nbsp;and gb agency.&nbsp;</p>

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Stories

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Why I collect: Staffan Ahrenberg

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Julien Ceccaldi’s anxious anime

Now showing at gb agency in Paris, her small, dreamlike works capture the emotions of those forced into exile

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BANNER

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Still wet with the shower of their tears

Maman, forgive me, I’m killing your daughter,

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