Draft:Abbas Zahedi
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Abbas Zahedi (1984) is a London-based British-Iranian interdisciplinary artist working across sonic and sculptural forms. He explores systems of care, thresholds of experience and social architecture.[1] On his website he states that his practice has been described as a form of dissociative realism, "moving between intimacy and estrangement, and attuned to forms of meaning that sit beyond the purely material".[1]
Zahedi is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London, and has taught widely in the UK and internationally.[1]
Zahedi was a Trustee of the South London Gallery from 2021-2014.[2]
Education
[edit]Zahedi began his career as a medic with a BSc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College London (2002-6) and making it part-way through a MBBS in Medicine at University College London (2006-11) where he began to train in psychiatry.[1][2]
After leaving his medical training early, Zahedi went on to study an MA in Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies at Central Saint Martins (2017-19),[2] where he dedicated his thesis to the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017, where he lost a good friend.[3]
Work
[edit]In 2015, Zahedi founded BARBEDOUN, a community-based social-enterprise which ran until 2017.[4][5] This took the form of a pop-up bar influenced by the British Temperance Movement.
In 2017, Zahedi took part in the Venice Biennale's Diaspora Pavilion, where he brewed a drink combining a traditional Iranian soft-drink mixed with an East-London craft beer.[6]
In 2020, Zahedi made another drink-based work in the form of Soul Refresher (2020), a pink drink made in collaboration with Square Root Soda works, inspired by the Indian sherbet syrup Rooh Afza. This was distributed at various sites in the Borough of Brent in London, predominantly the Sufra Food Bank.[7][8][9][10][11]
In 2020, Zahedi exhibited at the South London Gallery's Fire Station as part of their 9th Postgraduate Artist in Residence programme, with work exploring grief and ritual/lamentation rites.[12] This installation included sound work made in collaboration with musicians Saint Abdullah.
In 2020, Zahedi hosted Ouranophobia SW3, an installation alongside support groups for frontline staff during the COVID-19 pandemic at a disused sorting office in Chelsea.[13] The installation comprised of sculptural, sonic and architectural elements that explored the history of the site.[13]
In 2020, Zahedi produced his first video work, We Don't Know where We Are In The Drama.[14] Working with Arc Theatre's young women's group, Raised Voices, he facilitated dialogues with women on the Becontree Estate around the Dagenham Idol, a Neolithic wooden figure. Woven into the film are images of artist Madelon Vriesendrop's figurines.[14]
In 2022, Zahedi ran a public programme at the Barbican Centre in response to an exhibition of Postwar artists drawing on contemporary anxieties that relate to social praxis, performance and moving-image.[1]
Zahedi has a long-term dialogue and collaboration with artist Joshua Leon, whom he first met at the Ministry of Sound, for the DRAF (David Roberts Art Foundation) 20th anniversary Party.[15]
Awards
[edit]Zahedi has been awarded Stanley Picker Fellowship (2024), Artangel: Making Time (2023), Frieze Artist Award (2022), Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award (2021), and the Khadijah Saye Memorial Scholarship (2017).
Personal Life
[edit]Zahedi grew up in West London, in the same housing estate as Grenfell Tower.
Both Zahedi's Iranian parents died whilst he was growing up, and his brother died in his early adulthood after a heart transplant.[6][3]
Zahedi describes himself as a "migrant worker in London, born in France from Polish Catholic parents and having embraced Islam, I am a stranger in my own country and even in my own family. I realised that there is no place I can legitimately call home... except with the people with whom I share love and friendship."[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Bio". Abbas Zahedi // عباس زاهدی // abbzah.com. 2022-03-24. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ a b c "Abbas Zahedi // عباس زاهدی // abbzah.com". Abbas Zahedi // عباس زاهدی // abbzah.com. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ a b Grzonka, Patricia (2022). "Artist Abbas Zahedi at Frieze London" (PDF). Monopol.
- ^ a b BaryloSociologist, William; Photographer; Film-maker (2015-08-12). "Diasporic Nomads Enchanting London". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ "BARBEDOUN". Abbas Zahedi // عباس زاهدی // abbzah.com. 2014-04-01. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ a b Zahedi, Abbas (2020-03-30). Clip: Venice Biennale, Britain's New Voices, 2017 [BBC]. Retrieved 2025-09-30 – via Vimeo.
- ^ Buck, Louisa (2020-09-18). "Rosewater soda and a coronavirus memorial: what to see at the Brent Biennial". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ Scott, Peter (2020-09-25). "Brent's borough-wide biennial offers welcome refreshment". Apollo Magazine. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ "Art by Stealth: a Look Back at the Brent Biennial". artreview.com. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ "But Is It Art?". artreview.com. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ "But Is It Art?". artreview.com. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ "Abbas Zahedi: How To Make A How From A Why?". South London Gallery. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ a b Chu, Mimi (2021-02-12). "Top Ten Shows from the UK and Ireland". Frieze. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ a b Westall, Mark (2021-10-26). "New commissions by leading artists, designers and architects to see on Becontree Estate Dagenham". FAD Magazine. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
- ^ Lloyd-Smith, Harriet (2024-04-06). "The Exchange: Abbas Zahedi and Joshua Leon". Plaster Magazine. Retrieved 2025-09-30.