Meet artist Shirazeh Houshiary, who makes captivating paintings and sculptures, asking the same question: why do we exist instead of not existing?
Though born in Iran, Shirazeh Houshiary has spent the majority of her life – 51 years – living in the UK. “It’s a complex relationship I have with the world around me,” she says and elaborates: “I come from many different angles. And very often, people have tried to put me into places. I am this, I am that, I’m from here, I’m from there. And it always fails because somebody like me is a mixture of so many cultures, so many different ideas, and it requires an openness to be able to even look at what I’m doing.”
What Houshiary is doing is not limited to one medium. Her works span both paintings, sculptures, installations, and video works. “To describe a work of art is not an easy thing,” she says and continues: “The work of art is an experience. The moment you try to describe it, you almost destroy it.” However, some of her most significant works are her paintings, which are made with water, pigments in blue or red, and the two words “I am” and “I am not”, which are drawn together, creating a whole new word. “I ask this simple question: Why do I exist?” Hourshiary tries to investigate this question through her work, leaving the viewer with enthralling paintings and sculptures.
Poetry, literature and philosophy inspire Houshiary. “I’m interested in what I call time. And what is time? Time is nothing, as Aristotle said, it’s just change. Time is change. Time is movement.” Houshiary explains: “I don’t see narrative, I see the movement. It shows the difficulty that we have. It shows the isolation of the image. It shows all those things that we want to feel or to express. So, movement is actually quite powerful. I try to capture this movement.” Art is a method to feel free, liberated from the structures of the world around us. To her, the problem lies here: “We make too much judgement about right and wrong. A frog doesn’t need to make a judgment; a frog just is. And that sense of just pure existence is so powerful, is so enriching. Unfortunately, we lock ourselves into the self,” she says, “The essence of what I do is to show to myself and the world around me that we are ultimately interconnected.”
Shirazeh Houshiary (b. 1955) was born in Shiraz, Iran, where she attended university before moving to London, UK in 1974. She has a BA from Chelsea School of Art (1979) and works in London, UK. She became a Royal Academician in 2022. She has had solo exhibitions at the Long Museum, Shanghai, China (2023), Lisson Gallery, London (2021), Shanghai (2020), and New York (2017); Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore (2016); The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2007); Tate Liverpool, UK (2003); Islamic Gallery, British Museum, London, UK (1997); Magasin-Centre national d’art contemporain, Grenoble, France (1995); University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA (1994); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (1993); Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland (1988); and in 2013, her exhibition ‘Breath’ was a celebrated Collateral Event of the 55th Venice Biennale in Italy.
Shirazeh Houshiary was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen at her studio in London, UK, in June 2025.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2025.
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