The recent series titled “Japanese Gardens” by Mehrdad Naraghi (Tehran, 1978) is the result of an art residency award granted by the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. In his continued exploration of the landscape theme, Naraghi came across the term yugen, which in Japanese aesthetics evokes notions of depth and mystery. Associating these concepts with the idea of darkness and its value in Japanese culture, the artist immersed himself in a spatial exploration of a number of traditional gardens in Kyoto and Tokyo. His photographs appear to have been taken at twilight and lead the viewer through a world of dark undergrowth from which the shadow is absent. Gradually the eye succumbs to the darkness and forms begin to take their place as the various aspects of these iconic gardens.
Opening on Saturday November 26, this exhibition is the artist’s second solo at Ag Galerie and presents ten of the fifteen works in the series.