UBCO fine arts student Kiano Zamani wants us all to relax and start really talking to each other.
He came to discuss this with the Capital News after working on what one can only imagine has been an insanely prolific period conjuring up and reproducing his geometric paintings.
“I started doing these when I started mediating,” says the charismatic young master’s student. “Everything I make is about making communication and making people come together.”
Ordinarily, his work focuses on film projects and stimulating interaction, like his current film designed to get the audience to stand up and make friends with one another when it ends. Another little experiment he’s produced encourages people to make new connections with a little card one passes along to the next person they meet when it’s handed to them, somewhat like a live chain letter or email.
“I would say that in the older days, things were a little bit more relaxed, whereas now things are speeding up,” he explained. “I was on the bus and the bus driver turned the light out and you could just see (the glow) from the iPhones. Everybody is on their phones texting each other, but they’re afraid to just stop and talk in the street.”
Zamani calls himself a citizen of the world. He lived in France, hit all the big Canadian stops—Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax—and is now enjoying the laid-back pace of life in the Okanagan.
But he grew up around paintings with sacred geometry and says the balance and serenity the shapes put forth intrigue him beyond the typical paintings of this lovely landscape and our everyday reality.
“Sacred geometry is the art of beauty, balance and being centered,” said Zamani. “For a long time this art has been a passion of mine and I constantly sketch many designs in my sketchbooks. Out of the many designs, I then choose one to create on a canvas.”
The show includes five three-foot by three-foot paintings and one master painting that is four-foot by four-foot.
Zamani said he uses the images in his own meditation practice, as they are intended to relax one’s mind; and said the process of painting them is also relaxing, to a degree. He did need to paint morning and night and sacrifice a good deal of time over Christmas to make this exhibition happen; he wants to have 11 paintings, all perfectly balanced in both geometry and colour, before 2014.
Though textured, they are less about painting and more about measuring and creating a precise image on which to cast one’s gaze, he explained.
The gallery exhibition will include relaxing music to sooth the soul and some 54 quotes to inspire.
Kiano Zamani’s exhibition opens in the Fina Gallery in the UBCO fine arts building Jan. 16.
jsmith@kelownacapnews.com
