ST. LOUIS, MO.- Laumeier Sculpture Park is presenting Farid Rasulov: 1001 Skewers in the Aronson Fine Arts Center Whitaker Foundation Gallery, April 7–July 29, 2018. An outdoor commission, Rasulov’s Bird #1, 2018, has also been installed in Laumeier’s Northern Grove. The exhibition is curated by Dana Turkovic and supported by an Independent Artist Project grant from CEC Artslink, Zymo Sculpture Studio, Joan and Mitch Markow, and Mary and James Canova.
Farid Rasulov: 1001 Skewers is a large-scale, indoor sculptural installation using more than 1,000 stainless-steel kebab skewers, with configurations based on Azeri fairytales. Bird #1, 2018, is a monumental, outdoor sculpture commission—the fiberglass artwork is a formal extraction of geometric, abstract shapes found in Azeri carpet patterns. Rasulov’s two installations are whimsical, humorous applications of design techniques inspired by the artist’s heritage in Azerbaijan.
Rasulov states, “This exhibition is devoted to different situations, where each object in contact with other, similar objects passes from the state of the object to the state of the story—the idea is born, and life begins.”
Based in Baku, Azerbaijan, Farid Rasulov trained to be a doctor at the Azerbaijan State Medical University and has since become an artist. Rasulov draws his subjects from the traditional, cultural practices that slowly become erased from the Azerbaijani collective memory in the face of a rapidly modernizing and globalizing social-political context. Rasulov’s project at Laumeier continues his current exploration in sculpture based on complex, cultural references from the Caucasus.
Farid Rasulov was born in 1985 in Shusha, Azerbaijan. Solo exhibitions include Gallery Rabouan Moussion, Paris; Sharjah Islamic Art Festival, Sharjah, UAE; Aidan Gallery, Moscow, Russia; and Kichik QalArt Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan. Selected group exhibitions include Kunsthistorisches Museum-Neue Burg, Vienna; Spazio D-Maxxi National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow; ME Collectors Room, Berlin; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris; Phillips de Pury & Company, London; 55th Venice Biennale, Azerbaijan Pavilion, Venice; Modern Art Museum, Baku; YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku; Gazelli Art House, London; Kichik QalArt Gallery, Baku; Perm Museum of Modern Art (PERMM), Perm, Russia; Aidan Gallery, Moscow; Deutch Kyrkha, Baku; Voltahalle, Basel, Switzerland; M’ARS Gallery, Moscow; 53rd Venice Biennale, Azerbaijan Pavilion, Venice; Atrium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Berlin; and Residenzschloss, Dresden. Rasulov lives and works in Baku, Azerbaijan.
