Towards is pleased to present Vacancies, an exhibition featuring the work of Abbas Akhavan, Sameer Farooq, and Joshua Vettivelu. Mining both personal and public narratives, the works in Vacancies share a sense of intimacy – exploring identity, collective memory, the body, and loss.
In the front space of the gallery is Joshua Vettivelu’s sculpture there is no difference between nothing and everything when the distance you have built to cope becomes the world. Composed of 9 separate drawings etched on glass, the images depict men in the throes of various activities. Oscillating back and forth between intimacy and violence, the drawings reveal a darker side of masculinity – one in which men are encouraged to kill off parts of themselves in order to be recognized as men.
Running across the galleries east wall is Sameer Farooq’s installation Pouf, Sausage, Weight, Arc. These hand shaped ceramic sculptures mimic the forms of the protective and packing materials found in the backrooms of many museums. Acting as stand-ins for what is often edited out or left unseen, these objects highlight important questions regarding representation, inclusion, and what is omitted when we speak of “history.”
The back space of the gallery is dedicated to Abbas Akhavan’s after Untitled. Composed of a single ply facial tissue with the same dimension of a queen-size bedsheet, this delicate piece is a meditation on intimacy, loss and legacy.
