The artist’s work is guided by a deep appreciation of the rhythms of the natural world. Ahead of his presentation at the Venice Biennale in the Canadian Pavilion, he talks about how he has grown as an artist.
A glasshouse and an art gallery are not that different,’ Abbas Akhavan tells me, seated in a colleague’s studio in Berlin some weeks before the opening of the Venice Biennale. ‘They’re both temperature-controlled environments in which precious goods are kept alive. They’re ideological spaces of reverence, sanctity, contemplation. I see interesting parallels. I think they’re utopic models of life on Earth.’
This is not an airy critical position. Akhavan speaks of botanic gardens with the passion other artists afford museums. A devotee of Kew Gardens, he despairs of visitors more interested in selfies than charismatic megaflora. His specific area of interest is the flamboyant intersection of nature and culture – in gardens, agriculture and designed landscapes – and the delicate balance involved in maintaining it.
Read the full interview on the Apollo Magazine website.
