The Polygon Gallery presents From Slander’s Brand, an exploration of how artists make sense of difficult histories

Three works by Hannah Darabi, Rachel Khedoori, and Ron Terada give form to times that defy description

OCT 17, 2023 (VANCOUVER, CANADA) — The Polygon Gallery presents From Slander’s Brand from Nov. 10, 2023–Feb. 4, 2024, an exhibition bringing together three monumental works by Hannah Darabi, Rachel Khedoori, and Ron Terada. Each of these extensive bodies of work is the culmination of years of artistic labour created in response to transformational historic periods: the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Iraq War of 2003, and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Darabi, Khedoori, and Terada ask how art — through durational acts of reportage — acts as witness, interlocutor, and critical reflector on pivotal moments of historical trauma and transformation.

“A single image cannot adequately represent a period of time, particularly one that is disruptive and chaotic,” notes Reid Shier. “The artworks featured in From Slander’s Brand explore the contentious process of shaping memory and history — each is composed of many constituent parts and reflects an extended act of labour by the artists. Each artist reconstructs a period of time that has shaped contemporary reality, employing language — as found in books, newspapers, and websites — as a medium through which a new kind of ‘picture’ is created.”

The title is taken from an epitaph dedicated to Herodotus, whose “Histories” are reputed as the first western history to be written and published. However, because his writing was discursive, and employed storytelling and folktales, critics at the time also branded him “The Father of Lies.” As this epitaph suggests, he was driven into exile because of the criticism:

Herodotus the son of Lyxes here
Lies; in Ionic history without peer;
A Dorian born, who fled from Slander’s brand
And made in Thuria his new native land.

Tehran-born, Paris-based artist Hannah Darabi is known for her works that bring together photography with texts, archival images, and objects. Enghelab Street, A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979–1983 (2019) is a comprehensive archive of publications from across the political spectrum that were published during a period of regime change, which saw a brief flourishing of free expression before the religious dictatorship set in. The rare printed matter in the installation, all collected by the artist, takes audiences into the heart of this defining period in Iranian history. Darabi renders historic materials alive with masterful photographic storytelling, combining images of the swiftly censored books with her own photographs of contemporary Iran. Her award-winning artist’s book, which coheres all these materials with scholarly essays and interviews, will be available at The Diane Evans Bookstore.

Australia-born, Zurich-based artist Rachel Khedoori poses provocative phenomenological questions across works of installation, sculpture, film, and photography. Untitled (Iraq Book Project) (2008–2010) is uniquely austere in form, consisting of 70 books that contain a chronological compilation of news articles found online using the search terms “Iraq,” “Iraqi,” or “Baghdad.” The publications begin with articles published on March 18, 2003, the start of the most recent Iraq War, and continue for roughly six years. All have been translated into English and formatted into a single, seamless line of text. The work highlights the way perceptions of the war change, depending on time and place, with each book laid open on a table for visitors to read.

Vancouver-born and based artist Ron Terada’s practice in painting, photography, video, music, publications, and signage is largely text-based, often appropriating materials from pop culture and conceptual art sources. His ongoing series TL;DR (2020–2022) — short for “too long; didn’t read” — depicts hundreds of painted headlines taken from the tech news site The Verge, rendered in the iconic typeface of The New York Times. The work featured in From Slander’s Brand focuses on the seismic year 2020. By transforming the deluge of content found online into a monumental frieze composed of 325 paintings that surround the visitor in the contemplative quiet of a gallery, Terada makes space for an altogether different apprehension of, not only the news cycle, but also our relationship to the world it describes.

Opening Celebration takes place on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7pm. All are welcome. RSVP here.

This exhibition is generously supported by
Mark and Diana Sawers
Terrence and Lisa Turner
Bruno Wall

Press kit and photos
bit.ly/FromSlandersBrand

بیانیه مطبوعاتی فارسی
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Press contact
Ines Min
604 440 0791
ines@inesmin.com

Banner Image: Hannah Darabi, from the series Engelhab Street, A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979-1983, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist.