Andarooni:
Private House of Written Words
“Architecture is a language and I think you have to have a grammar in order to have a language. If you are good at that, you speak a wonderful prose, if you are really good, you can be a poet”.
Mies van der Rohe
Architecture is a form of language, language is a form of architecture, they both have a grammar and articulate space. The Architect and the Calligrapher both author with materials, the architect with wood, brick, glass, steel and stone, paper and graphite, the calligrapher with ink, paper and reed pen. While both are articulating substances, what they are actually authoring is space, they are constructing literate spaces. Calligraphy and Architecture both work with everything in-between the substance, they have a shared capacity to manifest human thought and action, and to articulate spaces of inhabitation that communicate human experience. It is here that we understand the deep affinity of Architecture and Calligraphy, both work ‘between the notes’, inhabiting the space and the mark at the same time. At once syntax and substance, the ground: the paper and building site, become fields of imagination for the spatial stories of our lives. It is in this sense, that we are honored to present Sina Goudarzi’s exhibition: Andarooni. As we contemplate these pages, their notation, their space, and their gestures speak to a fragile ground within our being. This ‘note book’ is at once calligraphy, architecture, and poetry, if we inhabit these spaces for long periods of time, ultimately, we find shelter and sanctuary, we find ourselves at home.
David Gersten
There is an ultimate space in my life where I engage in the meaning-making of my being. It is hard to reach this space very often. It demands seeking an internal path within one’s self in a moment of truth. It is either transpiring or not! If it does, it can vanish quickly.
Every time I get a reed pen in my hand, it guides me towards this moment. The path is not clear every time, yet not invisible either. The search cycle for this moment is the spark that brings forward the unity between myself, my hands and the words.
In 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, the quarantine drove me to seek entry to this ultimate space.
This booklet is the record of my inner journey at that time.
Sina Goudarzi
Andarooni: the private quarters of a traditional Iranian residential home which is only privileged by the family as opposed to the “Birooni” which is the social quarters where one hosts others.
© photographs by mstudioofficial