ABBAS AKHAYAN, VARIATIONS ON A GARDEN 20 JAN- 18 MAR 2017 OPENING RECEPTION: 19 JAN, 6.30-9PM ARTIST'S TALK: FRI 20 JAN, 4PM variations on a garden is a solo exhibition by Iranian-Canadian artist Abbas ‘Akhavan (b. 1977, Tehran, Iran) in DRAF Studio. The sculptural installation Study {for a Monument (2013-15) presents a series of bronze plants laid out on white ‘cotton bed sheets. These are the forms of Iris barnumea and Campanula acutiloba, among many others, native species from the area in and around the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in present day Iraq, This area is where the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon are presumed to have been built; in the same area in the 1990s the salt marshes were destroyed by Saddam Hussein in his campaign against the Marsh Arabs, and subsequently ravaged by the Iraq wars. Working with the ‘Flora of Iraq’ archive at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London and living plants from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, Akhavan has enlarged the plant species to human scale. They have been sculpted into plasticine, cast into wax, encased within plaster, melted, cast into bronze and, then, charred. They are presented as a forensic experiment or funerary monument on the gallery floor. ‘Also on display are the video installation Ghost (2013), excerpted youtube footage of American soldiers returning home to surprise their families which repeatedly’ fades to white, and the photograph and after and after (2003/8). The domestic sphere has been an ongoing area of research for Akhavan, and recent works have looked at the garden, the backyard and other domesticated landscapes. The garden often operates as a symbolic territory in the division between the commons and the proprietorial, between one nation and another. In DRAF Gallery, two further solo exhibitions explore the distinet practices of Charles Avery and Huma Bhabha. Each explores real and mythical territories, drawing on geographies and anthropologies including the Hebrides archipelago, Southern Pakistan. The three exhibitions propose a timely reflection on terrain and identity, migration and cultural diffusion. Abbas Akhavan. variations on a garden was originally commissioned by Mercer Union, Toronto and curated by Georgina Jackson (on display 12 Sept - 31 Oct 2015). At DRAR, the exhibition is curated by Vincent Honoré (Chief Curator) and Sandra Pusterhofer (Curator). This exhibition is supported by Canada Council for the Arts and Canada House. Sever eax~ Canada ‘Thanks to the Abraaj Group Art Prize and the Family Servais Collection for the loans of Study for a Monument (2013-15).