Ahrarnia’s Khatam-based series stems from the inherently constructivist and geometrically structured properties of the medium. Khatam is an Iranian micro-mosaic used decoratively to embellish domestic objects. Individual strings of long thin filaments made from organic materials such as ivory, camel bone, wood, copper, silver and brass are methodically grouped together, then cut at the cross section to reveal strips of complex geometric compositions. As in his previous pictorial series, Ahrarnia mostly references such qualities of the Russian Avant-Garde who greatly influenced the art and architecture of mid 20th century Iran, a cultural extension of the 19th century “Great Game”. Ahrarnia’s interest in exploring the Khatam marquetry as a mark-making medium combines an aesthetic tradition and applies it to seminal 20th century Modernist works. Ahrarnia considers the Khatam a mathematically generated self-referential process, in line with 20th century Modernist notions. Applying traditional materials and craftsmanship he uses Modernist and Constructivist paintings as a blueprint from which to lay out his Khatam mosaics, emphasizing the engagement of the modern with the traditional, the decorative with the scientific, and embedding this entanglement of various cultural sensibilities into one radiant surface.

In this work Ahrarnia references "Rotterdam", a composition by Edward Wadsworth, a British artist of the short-lived Vorticist movement, related to Cubism and Futurism, active between the years 1914-1918.

Ahrarnia's interest in Wadsworth, Wyndham Lewis and other members of the Vorticist group, stems from the embodied ideological concepts and the visual qualities which their works exude when it comes to capturing the rhythm of life in the Modern age.

Full of suggested movement, alternative perspectives and asymmetry, these compositions allude to futurist and cubist sensibilities. In addition to Constructivism and Suprematist sensibilities the artist has been using Vorticism as an art-historical reference point to articulate his experience of Modernity, in a set of intertwined contexts which refer to his individual existence and perception of various cross-cultural surroundings, feelings of dislocation and confrontation with the resulting byproducts of various sets of multi-faceted events and histories [as abstracts]. All reduced down to abstract and geometrical compositions. Some being more static and concrete whilst others float with a hovering effect.

In addition to visualizing the rhythms of Modern life through achieving dynamic abstract compositions, Ahrarnia is constantly testing out the expressive and constructivist qualities of Khatam as a traditional medium, its possibilities and its limitations. For it to be arranged in compositions which suggest alternative visual debates and discourses, tensions and harmonies! Ultimately all becoming a reflection of my own subjectivity and the constant becoming.


please note, I have based the above text more on a set of feelings of dislocation, harmony, rhythms of war and life.....the connecting joints and the wonky hinges! Life itself. It might just suffice!