Untitled 2011

Curator: Looking at this vibrant piece, made in 2011 by Mostafa Dashti, the immediate sensation is one of blushing heat. Editor: Heat, absolutely. It’s almost unsettlingly visceral. Is this all ink? The texture suggests a material manipulation beyond just simple application. Curator: Yes, it's ink, and the process, I believe, involved a lot of controlled pouring and layering. Look at the ways the artist allowed the ink to bloom and spread, particularly in the upper register; each bloom evokes both something floral and also something distinctly biological. Perhaps they were pursuing this ambiguous feeling? Editor: "Bloom" is a perfect word. The lack of crisp lines points to a loss of control that may be integral to this type of art. And I like how it seems like the ink almost etches itself into the support; that incised visual element really enhances the idea of organic growth pushing outward from within. Curator: It's almost an ecstatic kind of mark-making. Notice the way the lower registers, those deep crimsons, provide such a powerful anchor? Crimson is, after all, associated with passion and life force in many cultures. Does this read as spiritual to you? Editor: Possibly. Although I can’t quite divorce myself from the way such a color saturation might function. The artist almost certainly intends the emotional jolt that this level of sensory input causes, the same jolt one feels when consuming highly processed foods, for instance. In this respect, color is less a mystical tool and more a very sophisticated technology of feeling. Curator: An interesting parallel to how, in other art historical contexts, specific materials were chosen precisely *because* of the cultural associations that they evoked. Either way, "Untitled" pushes ink’s material boundaries and challenges how it operates conceptually. Editor: Yes, material meets meaning—or, more accurately, meaning is constructed from material. Thinking through Dashti’s method reveals so much about process as experience, not just process as an exercise of art history.