Shahpour Pouyan: My Place is The Placeless, 2022
“My place is the placeless” installation was part of the exhibition: Strange Clay at Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, London, 2022.
This installation explores the relationship between architecture, ancestry, and identity through the lens of the genetic ancestry test. The results of the artist test revealed a genetic makeup spanning 33 modern countries across Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, the Caucasus Mountains, Northern Europe and the British Isles. Pouyan spent two years researching the distinct historic architecture of each of these countries, with the aim of constructing his identity through the language of architecture.
The core of the exhibition is a large-scale cuboid industrial steel construction that supports 33 ceramic sculptures, each representing a dome from a monumental building in the country of Pouyan’s genetic extraction. The sculptures reflect a diversity of architecture, ranging from religious buildings to structures that are purely statements of grandiosity and power.
My place is the placeless, 2017, glazed ceramics, dimensions variable
