THE THIRD LINE, DUBAI (SEP 13 – OCT 21, 2017) A Solo Show ‘The Line of March’ by New York-based Artist Pouran Jinchi

Pouran Jinchi, B Morse code, 2016, Ink on paper and embroidery floss, 29x29 cm (11 1-2in x 11 1-2in) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

The artist quietly documents through her geometric patterns the traces of endless wars, conflict, and militarism. For months, she has been researching how military power discreetly slides into culture. The title of the exhibition Pouran borrowed from a painting by the 18th century French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Pouran Jinchi, Echo, 2016, Graphite markings on colorfix paper, 49.5 x 49.5 cm (19 1-2in x 19 1-2in) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Pouran Jinchi, Hotel, 2016, Graphite paper, 47.5 x 47 cm (18 3-4in x 18 1-2in) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Pouran Jinchi, M as Mike, 2017, Enamel on MDF panels, 137 x 107 cm (54in x 42in)_Detail 2 / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Pouran works across various genres from painting and drawing to sculpture and embroidery. She sews Morse code by hand onto desert hued linen cloth. She crafts sculptures from brass and copper, arranging them like chess pieces on a battlefield. Using wood and enamel, she creates sculptural paintings using brush strokes to paint fragmented Arabic letters corresponding to the military’s phonetic alphabet—A is for Alpha, J is for Juliet, V is for Victory. For the new series Pouran used colours from military world, from camouflage, to stripes of military ribbons, and the coded shades of naval flags.

Pouran’s art is well know by her experimentation between gesture and geometry. The calligraphic line evolves into a geometric grid, the linear into abstract structural form. Concept merges with form, and as a whole the exhibition becomes an intervention on the architecture of language.

Pouran Jinchi, T Morse code, 2016, Ink on paper and embroidery floss, 44.5 x 44.5 cm (17 1-2inx17 1-2in) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Pouran Jinchi, V as Victor, 2017, Enamel on MDF panels, 152 x 76 cm (60in x 30in) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Pouran Jinchi, Z as Zulu 2, 2017, Enamel on MDF panels, 61 x 61 cm (24in x 24in)_Side view/ Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Born in Mashhad, in Iran, Pouran Jinchi became attuned early in life to the ways architecture, objects, decoration, and the written word can be imbued with symbolic power. This awareness is threaded throughout her body of work, which explores the dense intersectionality of literary and pictorial narratives.

Pouran Jinchi, J as Juliet, 2017, Enamel on MDF panels, 76 x 137 cm (30in x 54in) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Pouran’s art has been featured internationally in exhibitions in New York, London, Venice, Dusseldorf, Dubai, Jeddah, Shanghai, and Tokyo. These include The Great Game, Iranian Pavilion 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015); Ravaged Garden, NYU Art Gallery, New York (2015); Accented, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE (2015); The Blind Owl, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2013); New Blue and White, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013); Dawn, Noon and Night, Art Projects International, New York (2012); Phantoms of Asia, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2012); Entropy; Ritual Imprint, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2010); Light of the Sufi: Mystical Arts of Islam, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2010); Light of the Sufi: Mystical Arts of Islam, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2009), and Translation/Tarjama, Queens Museum of Art, New York (2009). Pouran’s work is collected by museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi; Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Pratt Institute, New York.