Ominous Chaos looks at the peculiar, the uncanny and the grotesque through the works of Homa Khosravi and Marzieh Mosavarzadeh. Approaching the subject with levity, the exhibition interrogates mechanisms of control placed on the body. The body is malleable, constantly shifting, rearranging and reconstructing: it is a vessel of labor and memory. Situating the body through whimsical comicality, this exhibition asks: do these notions become suspended within the grotesque? Is the notion of chance a mediator in the unresolved questions of bodily autonomy and docility?

Using a variety of mediums to negate de-skilling, Khosravi and Mosavarzadeh emphasize labor and process in their practices: the hand of the artist is present. With cheeky playfulness, Khosravi’s work placates a sense of delicate surrealism through a series of paintings, illustrations, sculpture and collage. Mosavarzadeh contemplates potentialities and constraints in the relationship between language and the body, using printmaking as a means of repetition and decay. Ominous Chaos conveys a relationship between the humorous and menacing, illuminating possibilities in this implausible duo.

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About the artists:

Homa Khosravi (b. Tehran, Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver. She received her MFA from Simon Fraser University and BFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art. Her work touches on surrealism, abstraction and worldbuilding with various non-human creatures through a multitude of mediums, including painting, video and sculpture installation. Khosravi explores the human body and its connection to memory, fantasy and the uncanny, highlighting a foundation of humor found within. Khosravi investigates experiences of her body and mind in relation to her environment, vis à vis the process of making the artworks, the choice of colours, and materiality within the installation.

Marzieh Mosavarzadeh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at The University of British Columbia, Canada, specializing in art education. Her arts-based educational research explores artful, pedagogical, and speculative ways of making-place through the artistic practices of walking, image-making, and writing. She holds both her MFA and BFA in visual arts. Marzieh is grateful to live and work on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples–S?wxw?ú7mesh (Squamish), S?líh lw?ta?/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh), and xwm??kw?y??m (Musqueam) Nations.

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About the curator:

Bahar Mohazabnia is an Iranian/Canadian art historian, cultural worker and curator based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil- Waututh, and Musqueam Nations. Mohazabnia is currently an MA candidate in the department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History with a minor in Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies from the same institution. Mohazabnia is the recipient of the UBC Faculty of Arts Graduate Award, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Award and the Helen Belkin Memorial Scholarship, amongst others. Mohazabnia has held the positions of Curatorial Assistant at Griffin Art Projects, Exhibitions Assistant at AHVA Gallery and is currently a Public Programs Assistant at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.