Editions Fawbush is pleased to announce two new editions with Kamrooz Aram, From the Series Revolutionary Dreams (Prince), and From the Series Mystical Visions and Cosmic Vibrations, 2008-09. As with the artist’s unique work from these series, the prints focus on notions of religious ideology and the romanticizing of revolutionary figures. Aram's work explores iconography used in both the Islamic and the Western worlds, redefining and re-categorizing images and meanings for viewers from both backgrounds. Compositions are typically filled with profusions of flowers, billowing clouds, rolling waves and large areas of patterned detail, reminiscent of feathers, scales or sand on the beach after a low tide. The references are wide-ranging, from Persian miniatures to 60’s psychedelic music posters.

The series Mystical Visions and Cosmic Vibrations takes its inspiration from a line in Allen Ginsberg's elegiac America. Ginsberg, along with many of his contemporaries, shared a fascination with Eastern mystical culture. In the print from this series, the Mullah (religious scholar) can be seen as the romantic vision of a mystical Sufi saint that many Americans practicing New Age spirituality might celebrate. Conversely, he can be seen as a radical political figure, dangerous to American society. In From the Series Revolutionary Dreams (Prince), the American pop star represents a mellower symbol of revolutionary change. This series’ title is taken from a song by the Reggae musician Pablo Moses, whose song Revolutionary Dream describes the singer’s romanticized vision of a battle. Prince falls on this no less idealized side of protest, exemplifying the concept of revolution in music: political references in song and even in name. The two prints together can be seen as sides of the same coin; one mysterious and potentially threatening, the other familiar and embraced. Both however exemplify variations on the artist’s symbols of revolution.