Behruz Heshmat's tree houses
Behruz Heshmat, the Iranian artist resident in Austria, will show his sculptural works in a selling exhibition in London 14 October – 14 November 2013.
Behruz Heshmat, 2008-12, The House is Black, tree house series, metal and mixed media sculpture, 240x58x68 cm. Photo: Ario Marzban © Artist/Rose Issa Projects
Heshmat moved to Austria in the 1970s and has featured frequently in Eastern Art Report since the 1990s. Heshmat’s treehouses are described as a self-exiled artist’s imaginative interpretation of home. To Heshmat (aka Hechmat), the house is central to human existence, and his treehouses emphasise the instability and frailty of our notions of home. His treehouses mutate; their materials, colours and contents continually change and convey a great sense of energy.
His work is characterised by a playful handling of form and material, and has a wonderful, childlike quality. He is also a poet, writing verses with few words and layers of meaning. While his work may convey a sense of loss, solitude, and moments of darkness, the artist is also funny, full of laughter, jokes, and bizarre ideas. The artist is also known as Hechmat, a Germanised spelling in response to stay in Austria.
The treehouses also convey a sense of balance, for the laws of gravity determine the load and position of the house. They also have a Bauhaus quality, leaving an immediate impression that craft and industry are integral to Heshmat’s artwork. No wonder that architects are his main collectors.
Born in Tabriz in 1953, Behruz Heshmat worked as autodidact sculptor in Tabriz and Tehran (1970-1975). He held exhibitions in Tabriz and Tehran before moving to Austria to formally pursue sculpture at the Academy of Applied Arts of Vienna (1976-1982) and enroll in masterclasses with Wander Bertoni, an Austrian sculptor of public art. Since then he has received many awards and commissions for public art installations, mostly in Austria and Germany.
Behruz Heshmat, 2008-12, The House is Black (Mao Zedong), tree house series, metal and mixed media sculpture, 240x58x68 cm. Photo: Ario Marzban © Artist/Rose Issa Projects
Behruz Heshmat, 2008-12, The House is Black, tree house series, metal and mixed media sculpture, 240x58x68 cm. Photo: Ario Marzban © Artist/Rose Issa Projects
Behruz Heshmat: The House is Black, Rose Issa Projects (commercial gallery), 82 Great Portland Street, London W1. Buy a link on this page.
