Nasim Nasr, Measure of Love (Ashkdan) No. 1, 2023. Pigment print on archival cotton rag, 120 x 90 cm. Courtesy: the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne.

MARS Gallery presents Nasim Nasr’s debut exhibition Impulse, which brings together a new series of photographs, tear-pot installation, sound art and video work. Alongside never-before-seen photographic images, a contemporary interpretation of ashkdan, glass “tear-pots” originally made by the women of the Gajar dynasty in the 17th and 18th centuries in Iran will be presented in the main gallery space.

Ashkdan are the best-known examples of an Iranian glassware tradition and have a distinct tear-shaped opening at the top which flows into a thin curvilinear neck, before expanding into a larger round body at the base. As “containers for tears” they were created to collect the sorrow, emotions and love during the separations from their family members who were absent, of isolation and being alone, especially at the time of war.

A new sound work created in collaboration with French composer Loane Coste, will continue to address the measure of emotion and love at the time of separation from loved ones. The complex notions of cultural identifies through fluid gesture and contemporary dance inform an ongoing body of video work that will be exhibited in the downstairs video space.

Born in Iran, Nasr’s art practice has sought to comment upon the transience of cultural and personal identity. With an interest in cultural relationships in contemporary society, her artworks have engaged themes of intercultural dialogue and perspective between the historical and contemporary. Using video, photography, performance & 3D objects these works highlight notions of cultural difference as experienced in her past and present homelands, between West and East.

Nasr has exhibited nationally and internationally including the inaugural Triennial of Asia: We Do Not Dream Alone in 2021, a major survey of contemporary art from Asia and the diaspora at the Asia Society Museum in New York. Her work is held in major public and private collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra; Gene and Brian Sherman Collection; and Artbank, Sydney, and, in 2017 she was the recipient of the people’s choice award in The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Art Prize.

Opening Event: Wednesday 29 March, 5 – 7pm.

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