Shaghayegh Cyrous: Breathe the Sun @ Telematic Media Arts
A discussion between Artist Shaghayegh Cyrous and Curator Abby Chen about her most recent project
"Breathe the Sun" at Telematic Media Arts.
About the Exhibition
Telematic Media Arts presents Breathe the Sun, a multimedia video installation by Los Angeles-based Iranian artist Shaghayegh Cyrous, which appeals to ancient Persian origin stories to address the contemporary experience of being caught between social, political, religious, and geographical forces. Through ancestral memory, mythology, and inherited forms of wisdom, the work becomes a search for light, harmony, and survival amid instability and conflict.
Inhalation and exhalation are the simplest forms of death and rebirth: a cycle, a return, a beginning again. Breath becomes the first rhythm of life on this planet. Drawing from Iranian mythology and Zoroastrianism over 3,500 years ago, focusing on primal creation, Breathe the Sun reflects on the ancient struggle between light and darkness, creation and destruction, good and evil, in terms that are both cosmic and deeply personal.
Shaghayegh Cyrous is a multidisciplinary artist whose immersive practice spans multimedia installation, performance, painting, and social practice. Rooted in mythology, nature, and social and political power dynamics, her work explores identity, belonging, and the spiritual threads that connect us across time and culture. Through poetic imagery and theatrical environments, Cyrous brings forward hidden stories passed down through myth, poetry, and acts of resistance, creating dreamlike spaces where the ancient and contemporary meet.
Cyrous received her BA in Visual Art from Science and Culture University of Tehran and her MFA in Social Practice from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Cyrous has exhibited and performed internationally at venues such as Tehran MOCA, the British Museum in London, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Institut für Alles Mögliche in Berlin, Germany, the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, and Netflix’s Invisible Billboard and the billboard of the City of West Hollywood in Los Angeles.
Abby Chen is Head of Contemporary Art and Senior Associate Curator at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She recently curated Into View: Bernice Bing and Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk. She is the curator for the Taiwan Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale entitled Everyday War, featuring primarily video works by artist Yuan Goang-Ming. She is the recipient of the 2024 National Art Education Association Asian Art and Culture Interest Group Distinguished Art Educator Award. Abby’s experimental approach often explores the intersectionalities of race, sexuality, gender, nation, migration, and especially technology in both the United States and Asia. The award-winning exhibitions, attendant programs, publications, and different initiatives organized by Abby — which span from curating to community building—have helped the Asian Art Museum in a few short years to reshape the narrative of contemporary Asian art outside of Asia.