FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Twelve Gates Arts is thrilled to present Secrets of the Sun, a group exhibition curated by Sadaf Padder featuring work by Chitra Ganesh, Rani Som, Maede Tafvizi and Saba Taj. Secrets of the Sun opens on Friday August 2nd, 2024.
Opening Reception: August 2nd, 5:30-8pm (Twelve Gates Arts located at 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106) with a curatorial walkthrough and reading at 7 PM.
Exhibition Information:
“The ocean can be yours; why should you stop
Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?
The secrets of the sun are yours, but you
Content yourself with motes trapped in beams.”
- The Conference of Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar (translations provided by Afkham Darbandi and Dr. Dick Davis)
Inspired by the 12th century Persian epic Conference of the Birds by Attar, Secrets of the Sun explores the poem’s core lesson: the soul’s search for divine enlightenment can come only by relinquishing worldly attachments and overcoming feelings that control us, such as greed, anger, envy and ego. The looping, allegorical tale follows the flock’s perilous journey over seven valleys led by the wise Hoopoe bird to the Valleys of Quest, Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unity, Wonderment and Annihilation. Their goal is to reach the penultimate Mount Qaf, a mythical mountain wrapping around the Earth and thought to be home to the omnipotent Simurgh, a feature of Persian mythology. Chitra Ganesh, Rani Som, Saba Taj, and Maede Tafvizi utilize parables, structure and symbols found in the epic poem to collectively explore themes of ecological intimacy, self-discovery, community building, self-determination and liberation from static boundaries in images representing fluidity across geographical, diasporic, and gendered boundaries.
Informed by a background in architecture, graphic novelist and cartoonist Som traverses between the seven valleys, illustrating each in their signature aesthetic. The Valley of Bewilderment (2024) embeds an Attar parable within itself by adapting- a story of seduction and the protagonist’s loss of reasoning in light of such beauty into the comic form. The body of work culminates into The Valley of Annihilation (2024) which, is inspired “by Bokushō Shūshō’s 16th century Splashed-Ink Landscapes, images of mist- covered territories, the terrestrial signifiers of which are becoming enshrouded in a fog of nothingness, annihilated by the infinite,” in Som’s words.
Inspired by the idea of a solitary relationship with the maker, Chitra Ganesh embodies the mythic story structure in which the presence of a divine guide and themes of eco-human intimacy are paramount. Ganesh often transforms religious and pop cultural iconography by hybridizing and transmogrifying figures. A human body erupts into flora, as seen in Learning the Language of Birds (2023-24), borrowing from Barahmasa tradition of miniature Rajput paintings which visualizes storytelling of changing seasons and animism.
Saba Taj offers a timely and poignant work, Flights of Birds/Armed with Stones (2023), a meditation on the ongoing plight in Palestine by depicting endangered birds and plants of the region. In the words of the artist, “These birds used to share the skies with thousands and thousands of kites. Now, bombs unfurl from the clouds, their lethal tentacles searing into the earth, its birds, its plants, its people. Though these birds fly across borders and into other lands, they always return. Because they are free.”
Anchoring the exhibition is Maede Tafvizi’s ceramic installation Grief Resonance (2023-2024), a contemplation on space, inhabitance, heritage and the confluence of history and modernity. The 3D-printed installation is composed of Egyptian paste, an ancient land-based material, and is inspired by a regional weaving pattern known as Zilo and the artist’s family textile business in Iran. Just as an epic poem such as The Conference of Birds is the summation of many parts, so too is Grief Resonance. The work is composed of many individual materials which come together in a cohesive whole.
In Secrets of the Sun, these artists materialize an immersion of the intimate with the splendid, the worldly with the spiritual, the specific with the universally human. The exhibition may beckon visitors to consider: What physical journey have you embarked on that ushered in spiritual meaning? When have you felt passionate yearning, fervency and cosmic magnification of an emotion's intensity?
Exhibition Information: Secrets of the Sun, is a group exhibition curated by Sadaf Padder featuring work by Chitra Ganesh, Rani Som, Maede Tafvizi and Saba Taj. It is on view from August 2nd, 2024 to October 26th, 2024 at Twelve Gates Arts, 106 North 2nd St. Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday 11 AM - 5 PM or by appointment.
About Twelve Gates Arts
Founded in 2011, Twelve Gates Arts (12G) is an arts gallery located in Old City, Philadelphia that uplifts South & West Asian diasporic artistic voices within the local cultural landscape. 12G quarterly visual exhibitions and community events focus on an emerging art landscape that maps the cultures of migration, inclusive of the systems that influence it: race, gender, creed, empire, and economy. A nod to the archetypal fortified walls that surround Imperial medieval cities worldwide, our namesake underlies our exhibitions and events, which celebrate the melange of cultural identity that foments as peoples move and settle.
Chitra Ganesh is a Brooklyn-based visual artist whose work encompasses drawing, painting, comics, installation, video art, and animation. Through studies in literature, semiotics, social theory, science fiction, and historical and mythic texts, Ganesh attempts to reconcile representations of femininity, sexuality, and power absent from the artistic and literary canons. Ganesh holds a BA in Art-Semiotics and Comparative Literature from Brown University, and an MFA from Columbia University. She has exhibited widely across the U.S., Europe, and South Asia and her work is held in prominent public collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Rani Som is an Indian-American trans femme visual artist and author. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, MoMA.org, Autostraddle, The Strumpet, The Boston Review, The Georgia Review, Black Warrior Review and The Brooklyn Rail, amongst other publications. Her graphic novel Apsara Engine (The Feminist Press) is the winner of a 2020 L.A. Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel and a 2021 Lambda Literary Award winner for Best LGBTQ Comics. Her graphic memoir Spellbound (Street Noise Books) was also a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Rani has illustrated two books about architecture: The Prefab Bathroom: An Architectural History, (McFarland Press) and Cocktails and Conversations: Dialogues on Architectural Design (AIA New York). Rani’s artwork was featured in solo shows at ArtLexis Gallery and at Jaya Yoga Center and in group shows at The Society of Illustrators in New York, the Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College, Issyra Gallery, the Grady Alexis Gallery, De Cacaofabriek in the Netherlands and most recently at Art Omi in Ghent, NY.
Maede Tafvizi is a recent graduate in ceramic art from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Her work delves into the intricate relationship between material, space, and identity, reflecting my personal journey and rich cultural heritage. She pursued an undergraduate degree in Islamic art at the Art University of Isfahan, where I discovered a profound connection to ceramics. Growing up in Isfahan, an Iranian city steeped in historical and cultural heritage, she was inspired by its intricate Arabesque traceries, urban design, and architecture. Through her art, she aims to capture the essence of my experiences and emotions, creating pieces that speak to the universal human experience of seeking connection and belonging.
Saba Taj is a visual artist based in Durham, NC. Inspired by beauty, queerness, and Islam, Taj engages with representation as a resilience practice. Their work includes mixed-media drawing, painting, and collage, as well as sewing and performance. Through these techniques, Taj explores the liminality of minoritized individuals as an embodiment of resistance, hope and possibility. Taj is the 2023 Brightwork Fellow at Anchorlight, 2019-2020 post-MFA Fellow for the Documentary Diversity Project at CDS, and 2017 Southern Constellations Fellow at Elsewhere Museum. They earned their MFA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and their BA in Art Education at North Carolina Central University.
Sadaf Padder is a Brooklyn-based independent curator, writer, and community organizer. She focuses on excavating under-recognized contemporary art movements and histories related to the South Asian and Caribbean diasporas. She has curated exhibits across the country, from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to Martha’s Vineyard, weaving connections between various communities by highlighting themes of futurism, climate change, and neo-mythology. Her curatorial work has earned mentions in LA Weekly, Hyperallergic, and ARTnews, and resulted in acquisitions of work by BIPOC women artists at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Northwestern University, the Nion McEvoy Foundation, and private collections, including that of Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter.
For all press inquiries please contact aishakhan@twelvegatesarts.org