Abbas Zahedi’s artworks question; they question the everyday, question ‘common sense’ and, fundamentally, they question how bodies come to operate within systems that surround. Through installation and sound, performance and sculptural gestures, Zahedi’s artistic output casts new light on the seemingly insignificant in order to abound the social politics of a space, a system or a given situation, making these more hospitable in turn.

First emerging within the context of the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), Abbas Zahedi’s (b.1984, London, UK) route into ‘art proper’ can only be described as otherwise. After studying to become a Physiology and Pharmacology at University College London, in 2011 Zahedi left the medical field and began working as a community organiser in West London. Following years of creating spaces for togetherness and critical thought, Zahedi was approached to be one of the artists included in the first Diaspora Pavilion—one of the collateral Pavilions that formed Christine Macel’s 2017 Venice Biennale Viva Arte Viva, a Biennale envisioned as a series of interconnected pavilions designed to reflect art’s capacity for expanding humanism.

Since this first foray into art Zahedi has risen to become one of the most poignant contemporary artists working today. Following solo exhibitions at CAPC – contemporary art museum of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (2022-23); Anonymous Gallery, New York, USA (2022); Belmacz, London, UK (2021); Chelsea Sorting Office, London, UK (2020); and South London Gallery, London, UK (2020), in 2022 Zahedi was awarded the Frieze Artist Award for his project Waiting With {Sonic Support}, a project described by the Art Newspaper as “truly transformative.”

For June Art Fair (June 12–18, 2023), Belmacz presented two archival works by Zahedi. The first, part of a series of customised exit signs. Initially developed for his solo exhibition at South London Gallery (2020), these Exit Signs co-opt the internationally known signifier for emergency escapes routes, transforming these otherwise mundane objects into emotive expressions; expressions at once alluding to loss and mourning, and at the same time processes of de-embodiment so pertinent to the ‘logic of the White Cube.’ Furthering Zahedi’s critical interest in the effect of socio-political systems on bodies, this series explores how processes of exiting have become wholly biopolitical. That is, with their subtle modifications, these artwork point towards how rigid systems differentiate between differently particular bodies in differently particular ways. In turn, they speak to ideas of human agency, loss, and the transformations bodies make in order to become ‘proper’ fixtures within a one-dimension world-system.

Alongside Zahedi’s Exit Signs, the second work Belmacz presented at June Art Fair was a small aluminium sculpture. Titled Delete the Beans (Deadweight), this quizzical object is the physical trace of Zahedi’s performance lecture cum video, Delete the Beans (2020)—a lecture where Zahedi weaves together critical theory, free verse poetry, and dictum-esque statements to critically think through processes of becoming and how beings can be ‘deleted’ by forces such as the state. Rather than a rarefied object of desire, Zahedi intends this domestic edition to be placed upon one’s desk—next to a mouse, a pen or a notepad—therefore, reminding the owner of the mundane process of deleting something seen as extraneous.

As Zahedi’s first presentation in Switzerland, to contextualise these two artworks, and Zahedi’s wider practice, Belmacz positioned the artist’s first publication, semi rational records of artchievement (2021) central in the booth. Based upon UK Government’s National Record of Achievement—a folder given to secondary school pupils in the United Kingdom in the 1990s and early 2000s—this publication brings together key moment’s in Zahedi’s artistic becoming, providing a reader with an insight into his poetic practice and philosophical outlook.

A further list of available works by Abbas Zahedi can be found here

Artist biography

Abbas Zahedi’s (b.1984, London, UK) interdisciplinary practice blends contemporary philosophy, poetics and social dynamics with sound, sculpture and other gestures. With an emphasis on how personal and collective histories interweave, Zahedi’s interest lies within the connections found or formed around specific contexts.

Zahedi studied medicine at University College London, before exhibiting in the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017 ). Following this exhibition, Zahedi completed his MA in Contemporary Photography: Practices and Philosophies at Central Saint Martins in 2019.

Recent solo exhibitions include, Holding a Heart in Artifice, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2023); Loading Loading (the inertia of practice), CAPC – contemporary art museum of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (2022-23); Metatopia 10013, Anonymous Gallery, New York, USA (2022); 11 & 1, Belmacz, London, UK (2021); Ouranophobia SW3, Chelsea Sorting Office, London, UK (2020); How To Make A How From A Why?, South London Gallery, London, UK (2020).

In 2022, Zahedi was awarded the Frieze Artist Award for his project Waiting With {Sonic Support}. Other select projects include, Sonic Signals, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK (2022-2023); Associate Artist: Postwar Modern, Barbican, London, UK (2022); Brick Lane Foundation, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2021); Sonic Support Group, with Neurofringe, Chelsea Sorting Office, London, UK (2020 – ongoing); To The Sour Sowers, The Mosaic Rooms, London, UK (2021); Becontree Forever, Create London, UK (2021); Soul Refresher, Brent Biennial, London Borough of Culture, London, UK (2020).

Zahedi has been the recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Awards for Artists (2021), the Serpentine Gallerys’ Support Structures for Support Structures award (2021), SPACE’s Artist Award (2021), Artangel’s Thinking Time award (2020), and a Jerwood Arts Bursary (2019). His works feature in numerous public collections including the Tate and Royal College of Art, London collections.

Abbas lives and works in West London, where he is an associate lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London.