Created through the artist collective Unche Studio, “This Too” invites the public to interact with the installation as a space for gathering and contemplation.
School of Art MFA candidate Afrooz Partovi has unveiled This Too, a new public artwork permanently installed on the north lawn of PS1 Close House in Iowa City. Created through the artist collective Unche Studio, which Partovi co-founded with Ramyar Vala and Rambod Vala, the piece invites the public to submit responses to the artwork that reflect on the phrase “This too shall pass.” These reflections will join others, creating a collective writing project across time. The project was supported by the City of Iowa City Public Art Advisory Committee matching grant program and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Exploring Time and Ephemerality
This Too is derived from the phrase “This too shall pass,” believed to have originated in Farsi and among Sufi poets. The adage aims to bring joy in times of sorrow and melancholy in times of satisfaction, serving as a reminder of the ephemerality of all conditions. The written phrase, “.این نیز بگذرد” contains twelve characters, which, for Unche Studio, echo the numerals on a clock.
The typographical numerals, drawing from the flowing interlaced forms of Islamic knot patterns such as Girih and Arabesque, reflect the never-ending cycle of events, symbolizing the infinite nature of time and its perpetual flow. The English translation of the phrase is formed using a circular grid inspired by Spacetime diagrams and influenced by Square Kufi script and is painted in black on the body of the clock.
Aesthetically, the clock/table aims to simulate spacetime diagrams through its 720 wooden pieces and vibrant colors. A clock is an appliance that directly displays the passage of time, while a table is an object around which the passage of time takes place, whether in the form of dining, meeting, discussion, studying, planning, or drawing lines of flights.
About Unche Studio
The Farsi word “آنچه” translates to “that which” in English. Unche embodies a sense of ambiguity, inclusiveness, and the potential for all that is unseen, unknown, and yet to come. As an artist/designer collective founded in 2019, Unche uses art, design, and theory to create physical and virtual installations not to create bridges that connect polarities but to demonstrate the existence of gaps between things. Afrooz Partovi, Ramyar Vala, and Rambod Vala, as founders of the collective, situate themselves within this in-between-ness and out of which generate production, develop lines of flight and new possibilities for engaging with alterity. The struggle to produce, rather than arrive at an understanding is at the cornerstone of Unche’s practice.