With a background in printmaking, Abdollahi remains inspired by the freely bodily process of working on copper plates—an approach grounded in repetition and erasure. This sensibility extends through the exhibition: encompassing her long-standing series exploring architectural structures and culminating in an installation designed specifically to evoke the feeling of a “place”.
For Abdollahi, “place” is not fixed and is always in formation. It is something continuously shaped through a reciprocal relationship with human presence.
Years of moving between different Iranian cities has made her attentive to shifting urban forms and to the buildings that are constantly being constructed and demolished—sites she photographs for reflection and inspiration. These changing environments, along with her interest in historical ruins, inform her layered approach in which traces appear, vanish and reemerge.
In this series, she paints with wood stain, automotive paint, oil and alkyd paint on pre-cut aluminum sheets whose mechanical shapes guide each composition.
Unframed for the first time, the works extend into the surrounding space, becoming fragments that express sequence and repetition within the broader concept of “place.”