Reimagined Landscapes brings together the works of Gohar Dashti & Hamed Noori, Cyrus Mahboubian, and Qiu Yangzi to explore themes of cultural identity, home and displacement.
Gohar Dashti’s (b. 1980, Iran) practice is centred around an attentiveness to the natural world. Her latest series, Transformed Landscape is made in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Hamed Noori (b. 1979, Iran). Together they merge landscapes from their current home in the United States with those from their homeland, Iran. Using geometric patterns rooted in Islamic art, the collages draw on universal values and patterns found in nature. These surreal compositions reflect nature’s borderlessness and the two artists’ personal journeys between two cultures. In her 2022 series, Disappearing Nature, Dashti deliberately mars bucolic Polaroid photographs. Her burning and peeling of these beautiful landscapes mirrors the precarious situation of our planet.
Cyrus Mahboubian’s (b. 1986, UK) Composites emerge from the landscape, with time as a central element of his artistic process. Walking becomes a form of meditation for Mahboubian, as his Polaroid photographs are created without a predetermined path. Later, he cuts and rejoins the prints together to form new, dreamlike hybrid landscapes. This ‘in-betweenness’ reflects Mahboubian’s own bicultural identity, while the absence of dates or place names invites subjective and fluid interpretation.
Qiu Yangzi (b. 1989, China) draws on her experience of Shanshui, a Chinese term for landscape, emphasising spiritual connection, tranquility, and an ideal beyond this world. Her ongoing series, Rotation, explores immersion, space, place, and belonging to show how architecture creates divisions and tensions within the city. Yangzi’s large-format analogue prints transform our built environments into disorienting ‘mindscapes’ that challenge notions of orientation and reality.
These artists treat the landscape not merely as a backdrop but as a central character in their exploration of memory, displacement and the human condition. Their reconstructed and often surreal images reflect the search for belonging amidst cultural dualities and our increasingly fragmented relationship with the natural world.
Prints are available to purchase from £1,550 + VAT. All profits from print sales support The Photographers’ Gallery’s public programme. Please enquire about OwnArt to pay in instalments.
