Review: Morteza Khazaie’s Upside Down turns wood into a story of survival

Exhibition at Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai underscores the resilience found in nature

Morteza Khazaie uses wood to evoke a powerful metaphor for individual and societal change. Photo: Leila Heller Gallery

Morteza Khazaie is adept at extracting metaphor from wood.

In a way, the Iranian artist brings to mind the work of another figure, who at first seems to have little in common with Khazaie.

Henry David Thoreau was famously observant of trees. The 19th century American philosopher would take long walks in the wilderness, writing about the social network of forests and the ability of trees to withstand seismic change, from human plunder to natural disaster.

For Thoreau, trees were beacons of morality and grandeur, looming over human constrictions of time and politics with “ancient rectitude”,

Khazaie works from a similar vantage point. His exhibition at Leila Heller Gallery, Upside Down, is in its final two weeks, but nevertheless, there is a timeless quality in the sculptures he presents.

His wooden sculptures are human in form, with writhing postures and expressions that range from serene to painful. The necks of his figures twist and bend and stretch in impossible lengths and angles.

The curvatures in Khazaie's sculptures are inspired by the way trees are shaped by natural forces like winds and storms. Razmig Bedirian / The National

These curvatures are inspired by how trees are shaped by natural forces like winds and storms. The forms were symbolic of how trees endure without breaking by adapting to the elements.

By applying them to human forms, Khazaie coaxes a powerful metaphor for individual and societal change, transforming under pressure but nonetheless enduring.

The pieces are slender but life-sized. Their scale helps impart the metaphor Khazaie sets out to communicate, but there are also other details that enliven this sense of endurance.

Many of the sculptures seem to be crafted of a single piece of wood, or so it seems, but also have fragments that have been bolted and nailed together. These details are deliberate and elucidate a weathering through hardship.

By applying wood to human forms, Khazaie coaxes a powerful metaphor about transforming under pressure but nonetheless enduring. Photo: Leila Heller Gallery

The use of wood in this context, however, remains key. The material carries a sense of growth and history, while underscoring the resilience found in nature.

It embodies the juxtaposition between pliability and strength. As curator Farshad Mahoutforoush says about the exhibition: “Through these works, I wanted to explore how softness can be strength, and how being ‘upside down’ might simply mean seeing things differently.”

Upside Down runs at Leila Heller Gallery until September 15