Ala Ebtekar in conversation with Naz Cuguoglu
Saturday, October 26 at 11 AM [Virtual Event]
Co-hosted by the Farhang Foundaiton and Asian Art Museum
Join an enriching virtual conversation with celebrated artist Ala Ebtekar as he discusses his monumental installation, Luminous Ground, at the acclaimed Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
Commissioned by the museum, Luminous Ground is a breathtaking installation composed of imprinted handmade clay tiles, showcasing a vast image of the cosmos. Inspired by the celestial motifs in traditional Iranian architecture, Ebtekar’s work offers a contemporary reinterpretation, where the intricate tiles are not adorned with abstract geometric patterns but instead feature a mesmerizing photograph captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. This stunning depiction invites us to explore the universe’s distant reaches and gaze back billions of years into the history of our cosmos.
Joining Mr. Ebtekar in this fascinating dialogue will be Naz Cuguoglu, the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Asian Art Museum, who will share her insights and perspectives on the significance and profound impact of Ebtekar’s work.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to delve into the art and vision behind Luminous Ground and gain a deeper understanding of how Ebtekar merges traditional craftsmanship with a cosmic narrative.
Learn more and register here.
Ala Ebtekar: Thirty-Six Views of the Moon
Drink wine and look at the moon and think of all
the civilizations the moon has seen passing by…
— Omar Khayyam, 11th-century mathematician and poet
Artwork by Ala Ebtekar
Texts by Alexander Nemerov, Kim Beil, and Ladan Akbarnia
Hardcover
10.2 x 14 inches
131 pages / 48 images
Thirty-Six Views of the Moon is a meditative collection of nighttime exposures. Ebtekar uses book pages from texts referencing the moon and night sky spanning the last ten centuries, leaving the sheets outside in the moonlight from dusk until dawn. The artist works with a photographic glass plate negative of the moon from the Lick Observatory archives in Northern California, treating each book page with Potassium ferricyanide and Ammonium ferric citrate (cyanotype) to make the surface of the page light-sensitive. Then, Ebtekar exposes the pages overnight in the UV-light emitted by the moon. The work takes its cue from Omar Khayyam’s poem, eventually producing a vignette of windows to the moon, inviting us to shift the direction of our gaze. This project challenges viewers to imagine the moon looking at us, seeing ourselves as the objects of the moon’s billion-year gaze.
Learn more and order your copy here.