Lost in Paradise November 14, 2012

For their third exhibition, A&E projects choses Loft Sevigne in the heart of Paris to present a selection of twenty artworks from five contemporary artists, each addressing the theme of spirituality.
Lost in Paradise brings together five artists from Asia and the Middle East. Each artist brings their own cultural, social and religious backgrounds to approach the theme of spirituality. What links the artists in the exhibition - Reza Aramesh, Shezad Dawood, Idris Khan, Ariandhitya Pramuhendra and Michal Rovner - is that they all use religious symbols or iconography to portray their responses towards contemporary society, yet all feel that their works are not defined by their religion nor ethnicity. Instead they all cite spirituality as a more potent driving force in their work. Reza Aramesh, for example, creates sculptures that portray modern war victims as medieval Christian martyrs. The beatific poses of his human figures show the influence of religious 17th Century Spanish sculpture. Shezad Dawood’s work refers directly to the 12th Century Persian poem The Conference of the Birds as well as J.G. Ballard’s novel The Unlimited Dream Company.