LOONEH (farsi): TINY HOLE; HUMBLE HOME; LITTLE NEST, 2021

Statement

Roya Ziba’s LOONEH: JOURNEY TO (W)HOLE provides a combination of art historical reference, abstraction, ancient irrigation and fertilization methods, with the influence from spiritual allegory and non-human animal’s creativity as enchantments toward our own human resiliency.

Press Release

2021 Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts

Roya Ziba: LOONEH: JOURNEY TO (W)HOLE

The installation and individual works that make up Roya Ziba’s LOONEH: JOURNEY TO (W)HOLE engage the community with a combination of art historical reference, abstraction, ancient irrigation and fertilization methods, with the influence from spiritual allegory and non-human animal’s creativity as enchantments toward our own human resiliency.

The LOONEHs are hand-built, ceramic abstract sculptures inspired by study of the Persian poem Conference of the Birds, swallows building their nests around Beatrice Wood’s studio, ancient Olla pottery used for irrigation, combined with a nod to Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 work Fountain. The forms reimagine ancient Ollas and portable urinals that would now suit female or unisex anatomy, a rare adaptation to designs found throughout history. Installed outdoors, the unglazed works will irrigate and provide nutrients - through water, diluted urine or other modes of organic fertilization - for plants. The exhibition seeks to bring joy through function in gratitude and respect to the spiritual and creation’s earthly simplicities: soil, clean water, and nutriment. LOONEH: JOURNEY TO (W)HOLE provides an artistic exploration of ancient, alternative, and sustainable methods of irrigation that can have a global impact. The exhibition also features a series of mixed works on linen that mirror the Loonehs, creating an abstracted whole.

The exhibition’s title, LOONEH: JOURNEY TO (W)HOLE, evokes its humorous and spiritual constructs through word play utilizing phono-semantic matching, and homophones. For example, “Looneh” lends its name from a Persian word meaning “nest” or “small hole” derived from ancient Sufi poetry and “Loo”, a commonly used British word for toilet derived from the French phrase 'guardez l'eau', which means 'watch out for the water’. In this body of works Ziba has created abstract, unglazed, low-fired ceramic sculpture using buff clay, created during her residency at The Beatrice Center for the Arts.

The works are being presented on the hill in front of Wood’s Studio, with an installation of works on linen at the Center, November 2021.

In Ziba’s performance, she fills vessels with liquid and create a sonic composition of pouring sounds, augmented with field recordings from Ojai's nature. The work challenges the listener to distinguish between urine and water, using metaphor to offer a moment of play and respite from chaos. The piece functions as a sonic "chakra" watering, with herself as the performer.

©2021-2022

Roya Ziba