David Younglove
My current body of work is exploring the visual vernacular of Iranian imagery and its influence in a contemporary context. Learning from traditions of Persian miniature, my recent silkscreens employ a malleable sense of space and depth where multiple viewpoints or even times of day are drawn within the same scene. This has the effect of creating landscapes that feel as dynamic and alive as figures within the scene. It allows me to give agency to nature and to explore what the Persian poets called the ‘drunkenness’ of the world. While traditionally these scenes were purely idyllic, mine depict heavy weather and a sense of danger in reflection of the pained message nature seems to be giving to us. The fragmented approach to space and depth in combination with bold, flat colors in traditional designs has some of the same qualities as hard-edged modernist abstraction from the west. Realizing this, I am also using these images to explore how a figurative image can be designed in a way that gives the same bold and cohesive statement as an abstract image.
Biography
I am a Belfast-based artist from Boulder, Colorado. Having graduated with an MFA from Belfast School of Art I currently hold a studio as a member of the Flax Emerging Artist Programme. My work has been included in several group and solo exhibitions in Belfast and Colorado. My practice draws heavily on the renegade history of the silkscreen and the crudeness of discarded building materials. From this low-brow, transgressive space the holistic messages of classical Persian poetry and yet more ancient voices are severed from their Western demonization, reflecting my experiences as a member of Iranian-Assyrian diaspora.
david.younglove@ucdenver.edu
