Persepolis Part II by Sadegh Tirafkan at LACMA. (Photo by C-M.)
There is something about the crunch of boots on gravel that I find indescribably appealing. It’s something I associate with being a kid, when, every evening, I’d hear the sound of my dad’s pick-up pulling up outside our house, followed by the percussion of his boots all the way up our gravel driveway — and I knew that it was time to eat. (I was born hungry.) Which is why I was so excited to run into Sadegh Tirafkan‘s video piece, Persepolis Part II in the Ancient Iran galleries at the L.A. County Museum of Art.
The piece consists of two monitors, each with video of Tirafkan walking silently through the ruins of Persepolis, the ancient Persian capital. The video is rather dreamlike: the two images of the artist continually walk deliberately towards each other, but never meet. And all that is audible is the scraping sound of his feet on dry rock. It transforms the gallery, which is filled with lifeless shards of ancient pottery, into something more dynamic (if nostalgic).
If you happen to be popping into the museum to check out Art of Two Germanys, a detour to the Ahmanson building to check this out is totally worthwhile. The installation will be up through March.
In other news: I’ve got a lot going on workwise, so I’m cutting The Digest back to four days a week, Monday through Thursday. Thanks for reading, xox, C.
and here i was thinking the digest was yuor work!
lol. it is work. just not the kind that pays my rent…
I was just at LACMA doing the Art of Two Germanys Press Preview, funny you should post this today.
as you can see, i’m only months behind on my posts…
Four days? Dang.
Wicked! Someone else with a love for boot crunch! Boots in snow make an irresistable sound too.
Persepolis Part II sounds very intriguing and (as you put it) dreamlike. I think if I were to see it I would feel some sort of anticipation… almost expecting the two to meet even knowing beforehand that they will not.
Best Regards.