Nima Nabavi and Jason Seife : Duality

Fans, friends, collaborators: Nima Nabavi (b. Iran, 1978) and Jason Seife (b. Miami, 1989) present Duality as the product of an enduring “art friendship”. Connection can sometimes be misconstrued as trite in the world of art: our interests in the creative process are primarily driven by Renaissance concepts of the ‘master artist’ at work, sat with brush and easel in a studio alone but for his own genius. Outwardly indelible linkages such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were more nebulous and fractured in reality, whilst group exhibitions and academy hangs have been as much a place of direct competition as they were, and are, statements of aesthetic fraternity. Duality is a compelling showing of two artists working together in an impressive symbiosis that can only result from deep friendship. Preconceptions of what a two-person show might look like are left at the door. 

Both Nabavi and Seife think in colour, shape, and line. Each pairing of canvases, from Tenet, to Civic, Radar and Level are mixed and matched, but not exact. The strictest aspect of each coupling of works is the precise dimensions of each canvas as being the same, be it classic rectangle or experimental long diamond. Whilst the foundational proportions were shared, both artists agreed upon the works being cousins and not siblings. There is enough of a similarity to begin to draw out a familial relationship from one work to another, but not enough that they become each other’s mirror image. The conceit is therefore more sophisticated: they are the same, but different. 

Geometry was the pair’s common ground. Even the works themselves can be seen to be created in parallel: a call and response between Seife and Nabavi’s own particular approaches to how colour and form can be shaped. Even the title of each piece is an extension of these interrelated concepts of commonality and departure. Each work is named with an evocative palindrome shared between pairings. The structure of the letters themselves is even considered from a design approach, envisaged as an extension of the works themselves. Much like the companion pieces, the titular words are the same thing seen from a different perspective. 

Abstraction is rarely thought of in straightforward terms. As an impulse, a process of mark making, of manipulating shape and creating and noticing patterns, the art of abstraction is often intellectualised away from the primacy of form and the desire to create it. This is particularly true when considering works that are, no matter how tangentially, connected with the region of the Middle East. There is an indelible link between a shared heritage of Islamic art as the original abstraction; an overarching aesthetic modality that produced harmonious geometries and beautiful patterns in an expression of the divine. Navigating quite a distant relationship to tradition is the cross to bear of the diasporic artist. Choosing to be the voice that vocalises the enduring influence of heritage is, and should be, a self-conscious decision. Instead, the impact of a foregrounded visual and cultural lineage is stealthy and unconscious: the backing track to the whirling carpet-led symmetry of Seife and Nabavi’s disciplined, harmonious geometries are the result of a life-long awareness and absorption of certain conventions, combinations, and motifs rather than a detached, dedicated study of their historic meaning and development. In this way, their works defy categorisations of ‘Islamic’ or ‘Persian’ as there are no specific rules, regulations or justifications inherited from direct quotations of historic works, traditional training, or artistic philosophies. “Boldly moving into the weirdness” is how Nabavi puts it: a process probably more similar to the generative experimentations of artisans and artists from centuries past. Nabavi himself is self-taught, the stunning precision of his methods is based as much in contemplation as it is in mathematics. Seife’s own artistic education was just as instinctual; his artistic leanings were evident from childhood, going on to forge a career in graphic design before observing textile artists and carpet weavers in Morocco, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. 

Likewise, the grande dame of Iranian contemporary art, the late Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, was famously direct in her approach to her practice, despite efforts by critics and art historians to overlay her work with numerological and spiritual significance embedded in Sufi mysticism. Footage of the artist at work in her studio in showed Farmanfarmaian moving a ruler across paper, simply intoning ‘inja…inja… inja’ (here…here…here) – a mantra, whispered under her breath in Persian, narrating instinctual acts. The way that Seife and Nabavi talk to and about one another, their works, and their practice, is equally as unfussy: there’s no jargon, no getting caught up in external ideas. Any exterior meaning is based on gut feeling, what application of shade of red ‘feels right’ rather than getting bogged down in symbolism over visual functionality. The pair have more in common with the philosophies of Formalism: an aesthetic clarity that is paramount above all else. 

It is not hard to see how works followed one from the other with ease, gaining momentum as each artist become accountable to the other, finding new opportunities for expressive freedom whilst relinquishing a degree of creative control. There were no disagreements or significant forks in the road. Over four years of sharing techniques, methods and materials, the harmony of this exchange is aptly legible in the outcome of the works and the simple pleasure of looking at them.

The collaborative crescendo of the relationship is Noon, a combined piece worked from four L shaped panels that tessellate outwards in an impossible square. The pair discussed the possibilities for what kind of shape would be able to accommodate two different approaches yet show them working together in symbiosis. The remedy was invention: each artist worked on two of the embracing segments, with the final progression of the piece envisaged as a shape made together. Transitional points of contact are marked by escalating shades of orange, blended from reddest red to brightest buttery yellow. The eye is coaxed to zoom outwards, starting from a deconstructed central rosette of emptiness, before shapes, lines, colours, and patterns begin moving outwards in tandem.