Farideh Lashai’s exquisite 2012-13 multi-media installation, When I Count, There Are Only You…But When I Look, There Is Only a Shadow finds its point of departure in one of art’s modern masterpieces, Francisco Goya’s Los Desastres de la Guerra (1810-20), which articulates the cruelties of warfare as both historically specific and timelessly universal. 

 

A celebrated Iranian painter, translator and novelist, Lashai (1944-2013) expanded her practice to media installation during the last years of her life. For this piece, she meticulously re-etched each plate in Goya’s famous series, eradicating the figures and thereby neutralizing compositional tensions and narrative dynamics. She reintroduced actors of violence and suffering through projected animation, deploying a roving spotlight to focus the viewer’s gaze. Here, Lashai’s work is presented in conjunction with five very fine prints from Goya’s original series, recently acquired by the Davis.

 

Curated by Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro ‘37 Director, with generous support from The Maryam and Edward Eisler/Goldman Sachs Gives Fund on Art and Visual Culture in the Near, Middle, and Far East at the Davis Museum.

 

Join Maneli Keykavoussi, the artist’s daughter and Trustee of the Farideh Lashai Foundation, 

and Lisa Fischman for a conversation regarding Lashai’s life and practice.