You are here

"The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers," curated by Lila Nazemian

Type:

Country:

Venue:

Categories:

Exhibition Type:

How many artists: 
3
Date: 
Thursday, 30 January 2025 to Saturday, 10 May 2025
Opening: 
Thursday, 30 January 2025 - 6:00pm

Join us in celebrating the opening of The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers, a group exhibition curated by Lila Nazemian that presents the work of Levon Kafafian, Fatemeh Kazemi, and Levani.

The artists in the show utilize installation, sculpture, assemblage, textile, sound, and performance to delve into the significance of marriage rituals from the Caucasus region. Together, they create new worlds that reimagine these traditions through a speculative and queer lens.

The title of the exhibition makes reference to a Persian phrase common in Iranian wedding ceremonies: "عروس رفته گل بچینه", spoken as part of a playful consent ritual at the altar. When the bride demurs at the first or second offer of marriage, guests chime in with various lighthearted reasons for why she cannot respond, before the inevitable "yes" arrives. 

Within the exhibition, the eponymous bride becomes a metaphor for the fluid and evolving nature of identity, a character shaped by the dynamic exchange of ideas and the porous nature of cultural boundaries. Each artist engages with the concept of alter egos as a vehicle for exploring and reinterpreting inherited practices. By embodying ancient deities and iconic literary figures, Kafafian, Kazemi, and Levani question societal norms, reposition archetypal constructs, and expand the boundaries of established customs, creating spaces that are inclusive and affirming of queer identities.  

Levon Kafafian’s installation Mirror of Fate is inspired by the Armenian midsummer holiday hampartsum—a celebration of love and new beginnings. It is centered around the serpentine spirit Anarad, a central figure in their ongoing world-building project, Azadistan. Making reference to the practice of vijagakhagh (fortune telling), Kafafian creates an altar enveloped within suspended panels of hand-dyed silk dedicated to divination and the search for love. Among the objects handmade by the artist within the altar are a book, a leather artifact and rug, and “pools of time” crafted from satin, beadwork, and cured resin that evoke the flow of time, Anarad’s domain of influence and magic. The work is accompanied by a soundscape composed by electronic musician and sound artist Lara Sarkissian, inspired by the resonant echoes of Armenian churches and the mountainous landscapes of the Caucasus. 

Fatemeh Kazemi’s Sugar Chair, a sculpture of cast and engraved sugar that features the Turkish phrase Yalan Dünya (deceitful world), draws inspiration from a ritual—led by married women—of rubbing sugar cubes above the heads of newlyweds. The World: A World Full of Lies (Dünya Yalan Dünyasi) consists of a partition screen covered in wallpaper that reproduces a drawing of a female figure and archival photos of lovers embracing. The surface of the wallpaper is interrupted by moving images of poetry from Agha Shahid Ali’s Rooms are Never Finished (2001). These works explore the parallels between celebration and mourning, joy and grief. Kazemi's alter ego, the saqi (cupbearer)—a seminal character in Persian literature—serves as a conduit for collective memory and the ambiguity of gender. A transcendent figure who serves wine (a metaphor for divine knowledge and love), the saqi embodies both earthly and spiritual realms and is represented as both male and female, manifesting a fluidity that resonates with Kazemi's explorations of queerness and cultural identity. 

Levani delves into ancient Georgian beliefs and Sumerian mythology in the installation Altar, which marries the elemental forces of fire, water, earth, and air. Projected footage of the sun—a primary source of light, life, energy, and knowledge—is flanked by v. the hierophant, two horned, androgynous totems that embody the duality of light and dark, masculine and feminine. This dynamic interplay is further emphasized by a hand-carved stone basin, made in collaboration with sculptor Papuna Dabrundashvili. Filled with water that vibrates with sounds of present-day protesters in Tbilisi recorded by artist Marika Kochiashvili, the work echoes contemporary struggles for justice and highlights their relationship with ancestral practices. Across from the installation stands ii. the priestexx [bride], which has dual presence as a warrior. Constructed from industrial and crafted objects, it includes hand-hammered copper adornments made by designer Godera. 

Through the works of Kafafian, Kazemi, and Levani, The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers transforms the exhibition space into a sanctuary imbued with the tranquility of sacred gathering sites. Viewers enter with their own personal histories, heritages, identities, and beliefs, and are invited to take a moment of reprieve to contemplate their place within the world, and to consider how ancient traditions and contemporary realities intertwine to shape our individual and collective understandings of love, identity, and community.

Curator :

Venue ( Address ): 

137 W. 25th St.

New York, NY 10001

CUE Art , New York

 


 

Follow @_artweek

 


 

 

Other events from CUE Art

view
"The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers," curated by Lila Nazemian
01/30/2025 to 05/10/2025
view
Closing Program: "This Fire That Warms You" by Tsohil Bhatia
12/12/2024

 

Related Shows This Week

view
Sarah Steinburg: Rooted in Memory
01/11/2025 to 03/08/2025
view
Promenades in Light
02/13/2025 to 03/23/2025
view
Visions of Vermillion: Opening Reception
02/15/2025 to 03/16/2025
view
Ronnie Genotti: Tree Fort: The Enduring Memory of Safe Space
01/23/2025 to 03/01/2025
view
Load Gallery presents Neo Botanica: An Atlas of Artificially Generated Flora
02/06/2025 to 03/08/2025
view
Jan Baracz: twilight mechanics
01/23/2025 to 03/07/2025
view
László Lakner: Zahlen
01/28/2025 to 03/07/2025
view
''PUZZLE''
02/14/2025 to 02/27/2025

Pages