Iranian-Canadian Anahita Norouzi is on the shortlist of finalists for the 2023 Sobey Arts Prize honoring the country’s top visual artists.
Anahita Norouzi, originally from Tehran, Iran, and Montrealer since 2018, juggles with a panoply of materials to create her works: organic matter, sculpture, installation, photography and video punctuate her exhibitions.
Creating with these materials is “never comfortable”, she said in an interview with Duty. “And I made peace with that. It will never be comfortable. »
Neither did his subjects.
At the intersection of the colonial history of the Middle East, the experience of immigration, and the question of identity, “every project begins with a story”, she explains.
For example: “How notions such as indigenous and non-indigenous as an enduring legacy of colonialism created artificial landscapes and distorted relationships between humans and plants? […] How Western scientific research got mixed up with colonial exploitation? »
His works exhibited at the Nicolas Robert gallery thus draw on the botanical and archaeological sources of his native Iran.
These “small marginalized stories”, as she calls it herself, take on an importance magnified by their place among the finalists of a prize overseen by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). “It shows that these questions are valid in the eyes of institutions. »
Four other artists are among the top 5 unveiled on Monday. Séamus Gallagher, an artist from New Brunswick, pours into a queer aesthetic of self-portraiture. Michèle Pearson Clarke, born in Trinidad and based in Toronto, “situates suffering as fertile ground for social engagement and political connection”, according to the NGC.
Inuit artist Kablusiak is also noted for his ability to create work using all kinds of mediums, including lingerie, white flour, soapstone, felt, acrylic and words. Finally, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, from British Columbia, uses familiar textures and materials to question the concepts of land, property and economy.
The winner of the $100,000 Sobey grand prize will be announced in November.