Works

Installation view, It, Echo X diez gallery, Cologne, 2024

Untitled (Oracle), 2024 Inkjet print, oil and gesso on linen, 175 x 150 cm | 68 7/8 x 59 in

Tree and it’s memory, 2024 Wood, paint, lamp, 70 x 30 x 30 cm | 27.5 x 11.8 x 11.8 in

Idea 1 (light bulb), 2024 Lamp bulb, emulsion transfer, 20 x 5 x 5 cm | 7.8 x 1.9 x 1.9 in

Idea 2 (light bulb), 2024 Lamp bulb, emulsion transfer, 20 x 5 x 5 cm | 7.8 x 1.9 x 1.9 in

Idea 3 (light bulb), 2024 Lamp bulb, emulsion transfer, 20 x 5 x 5 cm | 7.8 x 1.9 x 1.9 in

O’clock, 2024 Cassette player, 1 minute loop tape, plushy snake, tape, cardboard box, sound looped, 50 x 40 x 40 cm | 19.6 x 15.7 x 15.7 in

Installation view, House of Rats, Lomex Gallery, NYC, 2024

Defictional, 2024, Oil on linen, 68 7/8 x 59 in, 175 x 150 cm

Nihil Convexed, 2024

Oil and Inkjet print on linen and canvas, thread, 98 3/8 x 78 3/4 in, 250 x 200 cm

Untitled, 2024, Oil on linen, 98 3/8 x 78 3/4 in, 250 x 200 cm

Story of an Egg, 2024, Oil on linen, 78 3/4 x 68 7/8 in, 200 x 175 cm

Seed of Winter (Orchids), 2024, Inkjet print and Gesso on linen and canvas, 78 3/4 x 68 7/8 in, 200 x 175 cm

Question of the Hanged Man, 2024, Oil on linen 78 3/4 x 68 7/8 in, 200 x 175 cm

Story of an Egg, 2024, Oil on linen, 78 3/4 x 68 7/8 in, 200 x 175 cm

Ghost in the Shell (Entropy), 2024

Couch, mannequin, electric guitar, coat rack, clothing, speakers, amps, modules, raspberry pi, and glass vessels filled with Encapso K and water,
Dimensions variable

Untitled, 2024

Door, newspaper, mannequin, clothing, camcorder,

Dimensions variable

In Shell, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 2023

Untitled (Semicolon), Oil and pastel on linen, 150x150 cm, 2023

Untitled, Oil on Linen, Inkjet print on canvas, 2023, 200x175 cm

Mirror Reflection (Autopsy of Mr. A), 2024, Oil on linen

Installation view, Liste Art Fair with diez Gallery, Basel, 2023

Untitled, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Untitled (Check-mate), Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

N.D.E, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Untitled, 2023, Plexiglass box, plush toys, tripod, handy-cam, keys, lock

Eye of s*uron, 2023, Ceramic, photo transfer, hardware, glass

Untitled (Subvocal), 2023, MDF, paint, blown glass, print on paper, tape, metal, trumpet

Untitled (to catch the breath), 2023, Human spinal cord model, barometer glass, hardware, paint

Diorama of a gaze, 2023, Coffee maker, crystal glass, hardware, pain

Untitled, 2023, Lock, shirt, MDF, hardware

Untitled, 2023, Minox 35-gt, MDF, paint, pencil, marker, photo print on paper

Untitled, Oil on linen, 150x150 cm, 59.05 x 59.05in

Masks, (a low-budget film), Oil on linen, 150x120 cm, 59.05 x 47.24 in

Untitled, Oil on linen, 150x120 cm, 59.05 x 47.24 in

Installation View, Short Cuts II at Lomex Gallery, NYC, 2023

Devil and abstraction, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Reading Sphynx's, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Untitled, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

A Thoughtful X-Ray, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Anatomy of a Poet, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Untitled, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Installation View, a Cirlce with Several Centers, Amsterdam, 2023

Men are Lunatics in Desert, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Baby is taking Shower (After L), Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

What Needles Point, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Interview, Oil on linen, 300x200 cm, 118.11 x 78.74 in

Untitled (An Urge to Become a Tool), Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Vanishing Point, Oil on linen, 150x200 cm, 59.05 x 78.74 in

Narcissus Reversed: I hate the solid image my reflection forms in mirror, it's too heavy that I’m afraid mirror implodes (Proposal for a Mise-en-scène), Oil on linen, 150x200 cm, 59.05 x 78.74 in

Untitled, Oil on linen, 175x200 cm, 68.89 x 78.74 in

Untitled, Oil on canvas, 150x200 cm, 59.05 x 78.74 in

Untitled, Oil on canvas, 150x150 cm, 59.05 x 59.05 in

Installation View, Städelschule Rundgang, Frankfurt am Main, 2022

Untitled, Oil on canvas, 150x200 cm, 59.05 x 78.74 in

Untitled (Check up), Oil on canvas, 150x200 cm, 59.05 x 78.74 in

Untitled, Oil on canvas, 150x150 cm, 59.05 x 59.05 in

Installation View, On the Other Hand, Bizarro, Copenhagen, 2021

Untitled, Oil on Canvas, 150x150 cm, 59x59 in

Untitled, Oil on Canvas, 150x100 cm, 39.37 x 59 in

Untitled (Angel In the Box), Oil on Canvas, 200x150 cm, 78.74 x 59 in

Untitled, Oil on Canvas, 150x100 cm, 39.37 x 59 in

Fanny & Kinky, Mixed media, 2021

Untitled (Minox 35-gt), Wood, Oil, Minox 35-g, glue, 2021

Amor Fati, 2020, Video installation, 2 channel video, animation, 15 minutes. Installation view at Ormside Projects, London

Untitled, 2020 110x90x5 cm paper, pencil, Charcoal, tape, mdf, nails

Untitled (A), 2020, 180x130x70 cm MDF, metal, tape, foam, plexiglass, photo print on paper, coin, cardboard

Installation view of “Seeds of after”, Graf von westphahlen, Frankfurt am Main, 2019

Proposal for a Letter (top view) Sand, Glue, Foam, Palette, Laser level, Stand, 2019

Headlines (Top view), Laser cut on Newspaper, Silicone, metal, photograph on paper and

foil, cardboard, pencil, clip, paper cup, Laser level, Stand, 2019

€conomy (top view) Laser level, stand, cardboard, latex. band, lasercut, photo, 2019

Untitled (Top view) Tray, Acrylic paint, pencil on cardboard, Photograph on paper, Photograph

on ceramic, Fork, Artificial teeth, Laser level, Stand 2019

Text By Marie Oucherif

A simulation in €conomy, Headlines and Untitled: An Archive of Thought towards the Formlessness

The enigmatic and ever so present something else vibrating in our everyday opens for a glitch of thought, as seen in the literatures in the genres of supernatural horror and science fiction writers, and reveals the coating of the uncanny Schein that radiates towards the observer. “The sign can be deciphered, the appearance (Schein) can not,” Jean Baudrillard accounts for that layer of simulation that absorbs the real in the just said simulation and hyperreality. Rasoul Ashtary’s work revolves around these notions of simulation, appearance, and the glitchy moment between fiction and reality that conduct the four sculptures into a sort of hyperbolic prose that is strongly informed by writers whose works literally have been written through time.

It is argued that this glitch is not totally unlike reality but rather an echo, a quasi form through which the real might as well show itself. Often insinuated as a synonym of deceit or a manoeuvre, but instead voiced positively it can also be a visceral mold for imagination: for building, forming, shaping, managing and – moreover – thinking, visualizing, assuming, inventing, and in Ashtary’s case, inverting. Minimalism in form and hyperbole in content both construct the core element of all the four works of the show. Taking its starting point from the architectural rearrangement of a Frankfurt bank building from a glass cuboid to a sort of polyhedron by cutting and enjoining the same form, Ashtary mirrors this glitch through his conceptual works on a top floor lawyer’s office. While pondering upon Dante’s nine celestial spheres as an inversion of the Tower of Babel – it echoes of Ashtary’s vignette “See You In Hell” in “Headline” – we observe a staged gaze through a laser grid, organizing ramifications of intense conceptual examinations of theory by the artist. The strategy of hyperbole, through which the vibrant and dull matter are married, is expressed through signs and descriptors that ultimately fail to inscribe themselves within human thought and language. Therefore, they exist antagonistically. Relics of a once sturdy fork, a coffee cup pinched by a pen and an inverted visual illusion of a face refer to a supposedly ordinary work environment – while stepping aside and recalibrating, it might be something completely different.

The evaluation of vision and the visual, as well as distance and proximity, root in a questioning of the determination of site according to one’s presence in the specific space. Orchestrated by the artist through laser beams, these agents refer to objects as well as spectators, whose sight axis need to be attuned in accordance to the work to escape the anamorphic image introduced by lines of red and green. The view from the top level of the building reveals a vista of skyscrapers pinching the sky through reflective glass fronts and garish light arrangements. The same top level repeats the Economy of capitalism through restrained signifiers of sand and glue operating on the architectural forms of modern bank buildings, rendering the seen alien further towards an abstraction of environment.