Artist Critiques War Imagery Through His Sculpture in Collect Pond Park

Reza Aramesh's sculpture, inspired by a photograph from the Vietnam War, stood in Collect Pond Park from last September until early this month. Photo © On White Wall

The 7-foot white-marble sculpture of a man, his head wrapped in clothing, pants at his feet and all but bare, was being taken down from its cinder-block perch in Collect Pond Park on Jan. 3 when its creator, Reza Aramesh, arrived to see it off. The London-based artist watched as workers swaddled the piece in protective blankets and gingerly placed it in a shipping case, bound for return to a private collector. While in the park, Aramesh talked to the Trib about the work, one of a series he calls “Site of the Fall—Study of the Renaissance Garden,” which had been in place since September. The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

What do you mean to convey with the work?

For the last 18 years I’ve been looking at images of war reportage and responding to it by making artwork that engages with a dialogue with European art history, Renaissance sculptures made from marble that depict noblemen, religious figures, aristocrats. My subjects are just ordinary human beings. This figure was inspired by a 1968 photograph from the Vietnam War, one of many in which the clothes of the person covered his head. We’re bombarded by so many images of violence that they don’t have any effect on us. We become desensitized. In my work, those images are contextualized in the vocabulary of Renaissance by using the agent of beauty to convey a horrific story.

How can we not be overexposed to those images, like the ones we are seeing now from the war in Gaza?

I don’t know what we should do, because that is not my job as an artist. Also as an artist, I am not a capital P political person, but I am basically reflecting my response to war reports.

You are originally from Iran and your family is still there. Does your heritage influence your work?

It really doesn’t. I mean in some ways all of us have backgrounds that influence the way we see the world. But my work is really not engaged in referencing my background or idea of identity. I’m not really keen on such subjects. Since I was a kid I was interested in my response to universal issues or universal matters. 

How did the work come to be in Collect Pond Park?

I had a piece like this one, two-color marble, in the Armory Fair and it was accepted to be shown at the U.S. Open. But I think in the last phase of consideration there was a member of the committee that said it was too charged. 

What about it was charged?

They didn’t explain it, they just said it was charged. And I couldn’t challenge them really, because it was a public space. If it was private it would have been different. 

The Armory and your galleries, Night Gallery in Los Angeles and Dastan Gallery in Tehran, were given the opportunity by the Parks Department to install a piece like it in one of the city’s parks. What made you choose Collect Pond Park?

My studio researched the parks around here and we thought it would be really great to have it here because the park is surrounded by institutions of justice. And because my depiction of an ordinary person might work. It was important to have a dialogue with the community around here, with the people who work in these institutions and the people who come there to be judged. 

You’re an international artist. You’ve shown in many galleries, public spaces and museums. What did it mean to you to have this piece in Collect Pond Park?

To show the sculpture, surrounded by all the buildings of justice, has been one of the most significant projects of mine to date. Plus, New York City is one of my favorite cities in the world, a city that I have a spiritual relationship with. To have the opportunity to show my work there was an honor.