Shirazeh Houshiary

Playground

2004

5 meter cube with suspended yellow fabric

Resonance

1995

120 x 120 x 36 cm. cast lead and gold leaf

Isthmus

1990

340 x 220 x 90 cm. 340 x 500 x 90 cm. patinated and polished copper

Altar: St. Martin in the Fields

2010

window

Christmas Tree

1993

fir tree, gold leaf

"Presence is like light - how can you describe it? Light can be only experienced, it has presence. This work also has a presence and has only to be experienced, it has presence," is how Shirazeh Houshiary, a Turner Prize winner, has described her work. She is a Iranian-born artist who moved to London in the early 1970s to study and work. "In Europe she is well known for her sculptures in which she investigates spiritual principles and abstract forms." [1] My favorite piece after researching is "Christmas Tree," an inverted Christmas tree representing the "intention to move away from traditional notion of tree decorating and focus on its natural qualities." The gold leaf on the roots represents the light and to "focus light upwards away from the branches." [2]

1.Lehmann Maupin http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/artists/shirazeh-houshiary/

2.Shirazeh Houshiary http://www.shirazehhoushiary.com/