Site-Specific Installation

Created specifically for the Museum, this free indoor art installation is presented in partnership with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, and is curated by Bonnie Rubenstein. The site-specific piece is comprised of three fabric scrolls, each over 75 feet in length, suspended from the ceiling of the Museum’s light-filled atrium.

Pushing Against Indifference

Drawing from popular media images, the scrolls feature elaborate geometric designs that echo the Islamic motifs ornamenting the Museum’s architecture. However, upon closer look, the abstract forms are revealed to be the Western machinery of war, inspiring conversation and pushing against indifferent narratives of warfare in pop culture.

Seeing Into Knowing

Born in Iran and based in San Francisco and Toronto, Mazinani’s artistic practice explores how repetition and patterns can transform seeing into knowing. Working across the disciplines of photography, sculpture, and large-scale multimedia installations, Mazinani creates informational pieces that invite a rethinking of how we see.

Mazinani was recently awarded the Zellerbach Family Foundation Grant and a National Endowment for the Arts grant for her latest book. Her work has been exhibited around the world, and is held in the public collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Read CONTACT’s full essay on Not Elsewhere.