In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, chaos was the genesis of everything; a formless, unfathomable void at the beginning of time. Chaos, however, was more than just an empty vacuum; it was, rather, a realm of mass and energy, from which many of the world’s powerful elements originated. Reza Nosrati’s first exhibition in Mohsen Gallery seems to represent brief moments of that eternal state of disorder in a series called “Chaos.” In his previous series, he was seeking a kind of realistic artistry in order to create a more accurate image with great textures and details, while he blurred the border of reality and painting. Now, however, by deliberately alienating himself as he confronts the surrounding environment and choosing forms as well as his technical method, he combines mania and tension, to eventually perceive and depict this sense of bewilderment with a poetic overtone.
In his previous series, Reza Nosrati often used a symbolic approach to visual elements, depicting them as a single whole in the center of the frame, whereas here, the artist’s approach to the subject is different. As he has gotten more entangled in the tumult, he moves away from a single detail to stand in the midst of the commotion. Now despite of the plurality of visual elements, it seems that one phenomenon is seen as a single flock of petrified birds. In his layered abstraction, with no emphasis on employing his centrist approach, achieving formal perfection, and the ideal aspect of the real, Reza reveals the onslaught of chaos hidden inside the moment in which reality is fractured; a moment of personal and collective awe and bewilderment.
Reza’s new visual expression seems to have a more simplified overtone; the sorrowful mass of disquietude. In this series, he deliberately uses technical manipulations, which initially appeared in his works in an accidental fashion, to point out the patchwork nature of contemporary events. The surface of the canvas does not seem to suffice to capture so much perplexity; thus, with great hope, he repeats them in translucent layers so that accumulation of layers can remedy the wounds remained from the bitter events of the past. The repetition of layers with clear boundaries on the layer underneath is perhaps an attempt to cover the losses of life; with no choice but to remedy them; It is an attempt to rectify the decay.
Floating in eternal chaos, like the carefree flight of birds, brings with it a dull sense of freedom and a mystical liberation, because chaos is the origin and the destination, with which everything begins and ends.