Azerbaijani artist, Aida Mahmudova, who is also the founder of Yarat Contemporary Art Space presents Heaven Can Wait . The solo show creates a ‘landscape’ in an attempt to save humans from the claustrophobia of the self
One of the go-to places to see contemporary art in Baku is Yarat Contemporary Art Space. The gallery hosts temporary exhibitions by leading and emerging international and local artists to explore and platform contemporary art in Azerbaijan.
Mahmudova’s show touches intimately on the pathology of the self, exploring how humans relate to the world both physically and emotionally through performance art, as well as more traditional forms such as painting and sculpting.
Mahmudova aims to communicate the importance of geography and its meaning through two large canvases at the centre of the exhibition. They show that all human life is grounded in landscape, in geography, from beginning to end, and acknowledge a being’s return to its original point after undergoing life’s natural cycle.
Fossil, 2022, series © Yarat. Photo by Ali Rza
Aside from these two canvases, Mahmudova also focuses on humanity’s influences on art and how art acts as a lens through which she perceives others and herself. She uses her own mind and body as well as her artwork to acknowledge shared experience.
“For me as an artist, [art] acts as a stand in for many of our human emotions as well as processes such as entropy and re-creation, lacerations and layering: they all have both a philosophical and a physical reality to them,” comments Mahmudova
The symbiotic relationship between art and the self is communicated through castings of her body featured in the exhibition and the volume that they occupy in the space, symbolising how much space a person is perceived to take up in the world.
Aida Mahmudova’s Heaven Can Wait solo show at Yarat Contemporary Art Space © Yarat. Photo by Ali Rza
Mahmudova stated, ‘I carry my works for many months and, naturally, everything that excites me, hurts, disturbs or, conversely, makes me happy, finds a way out through [my pieces].’
Mahmudova believes her works are an attempt to combat material and spiritual evils and represent the ideals of the past, present future, and memory.
Untitled, 2022, series © Yarat. Photo by Ali Rza
She creates open compositions on the edges of canvases to highlight the need for greater receptiveness and expression. The borders are left open representing her calls for more cross-cultural dialogue among artists.
In that spirit, her exhibition tries to cross physical and conceptual borders. Each artwork offers the spectator a way to embark on her journey.
Heaven Can Wait is available to view until Sunday 22nd October at Yarat Contemporary Art Space
Online Editor: Candice Tucker
Written by: Ava Doherty
