Out of Sight, Beyond Touch

If art is a means of self-knowledge (the “self” here referring to either the artist or the audience and their knowing of others, and the world we live in), then the way we, as the audience, encounter artwork and comprehend its conceptual or aesthetic elements becomes relevant to the way we perceive ourselves and our greater surroundings. What makes one’s interaction of an artwork different than another’s? Why does an artwork push one person to think and leaves the other unaffected? To find the answers to such questions, I put less emphasis on the content and subject matter of the artwork in this exhibition and focus on the ways one might perceive the artwork. As the sense of sight often gets the most attention in the process of taking in an artwork, Out of Sight, Beyond Touch aims to remind one of the crucial role touch has in our perception of works of art.

This Farsi/English bilingual catalogue includes: images of the artworks exhibited at Center for Book Arts in 2021; an essay by Marayam Ghoreishi; writing by Shirin Salehi, Bahman Mohammadi, and Amina Ahmed; an interview with Mark Patterson about the haptic qualities of book art; and artist bios.

Artists

• Amina Ahmed
• Bahman Mohammadi
• Masoumeh Mohtadi
• Shirin Salehi

Designer

• Rambod Vala (Former Design Studio)
• Amirali Khatibi (Former Design Studio)

Photographers

• Samoel González
• Aidin Baftechi

Editors

• Jenna Hamed
• Sarah Sloan

Binder

• Myong Jin

Special thanks to Aran Gharibpour.