NEW YORK, NY.- On Thursday, January 30th from 6–8 pm, CUE Art opens The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers, a group exhibition curated by Lila Nazemian with works by Levon Kafafian, Fatemeh Kazemi, and Levani. The exhibition is organized as part of CUE's open call for curatorial projects, and Nazemian is mentored by curator Martha Joseph. It will remain on view at CUE's gallery space at 137 West 25th St. until May 10, 2025.
The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers presents works by three artists who utilize installation, sculpture, assemblage, textile, sound, and performance to delve into the significance of marriage rituals from the Caucasus region. Together, they create new worlds that reimagine these traditions through a speculative and queer lens.
The title of the exhibition makes reference to a Persian phrase common in Iranian wedding ceremonies: "عروس رفته گل بچینه", spoken as part of a playful consent ritual at the altar. When the bride demurs at the first or second offer of marriage, guests chime in with various lighthearted reasons for why she cannot respond, before the inevitable "yes" arrives.
Within the exhibition, the eponymous bride becomes a metaphor for the fluid and evolving nature of identity, a character shaped by the dynamic exchange of ideas and the porous nature of cultural boundaries. Each artist engages with the concept of alter egos as a vehicle for exploring and reinterpreting inherited practices. By embodying ancient deities and iconic literary figures, Kafafian, Kazemi, and Levani question societal norms, reposition archetypal constructs, and expand the boundaries of established customs, creating spaces that are inclusive and affirming of queer identities.
Levon Kafafian’s installation Mirror of Fate is inspired by the Armenian midsummer holiday hampartsum—a celebration of love and new beginnings. It is centered around the serpentine spirit Anarad, a central figure in their ongoing world-building project, Azadistan. Making reference to the practice of vijagakhagh (fortune telling), Kafafian creates an altar enveloped within suspended panels of hand-dyed silk dedicated to divination and the search for love. Among the objects handmade by the artist within the altar are a book, a leather artifact and rug, and “pools of time” crafted from satin, beadwork, and cured resin that evoke the flow of time, Anarad’s domain of influence and magic. The work is accompanied by a soundscape composed by electronic musician and sound artist Lara Sarkissian, inspired by the resonant echoes of Armenian churches and the mountainous landscapes of the Caucasus.
Fatemeh Kazemi’s Sugar Chair, a sculpture of cast and engraved sugar that features the Turkish phrase Yalan Dünya (deceitful world), draws inspiration from a ritual—led by married women—of rubbing sugar cubes above the heads of newlyweds. The World: A World Full of Lies (Dünya Yalan Dünyasi) consists of a partition screen covered in wallpaper that reproduces a drawing of a female figure and archival photos of lovers embracing. The surface of the wallpaper is interrupted by moving images of poetry from Agha Shahid Ali’s Rooms are Never Finished (2001). These works explore the parallels between celebration and mourning, joy and grief. Kazemi's alter ego, the saqi (cupbearer)—a seminal character in Persian literature—serves as a conduit for collective memory and the ambiguity of gender. A transcendent figure who serves wine (a metaphor for divine knowledge and love), the saqi embodies both earthly and spiritual realms and is represented as both male and female, manifesting a fluidity that resonates with Kazemi's explorations of queerness and cultural identity.
Levani delves into ancient Georgian beliefs and Sumerian mythology in the installation Altar, which marries the elemental forces of fire, water, earth, and air. Projected footage of the sun—a primary source of light, life, energy, and knowledge—is flanked by v. the hierophant, two horned, androgynous totems that embody the duality of light and dark, masculine and feminine. This dynamic interplay is further emphasized by a hand-carved stone basin, made in collaboration with sculptor Papuna Dabrundashvili. Filled with water that vibrates with sounds of present-day protesters in Tbilisi recorded by artist Marika Kochiashvili, the work echoes contemporary struggles for justice and highlights their relationship with ancestral practices. Across from the installation stands ii. the priestexx [bride], which has dual presence as a warrior. Constructed from industrial and crafted objects, it includes hand-hammered copper adornments made by designer Godera.
Through the works of Kafafian, Kazemi, and Levani, The Bride Has Gone to Pick Flowers transforms the exhibition space into a sanctuary imbued with the tranquility of sacred gathering sites. Viewers enter with their own personal histories, heritages, identities, and beliefs, and are invited to take a moment of reprieve to contemplate their place within the world, and to consider how ancient traditions and contemporary realities intertwine to shape our individual and collective understandings of love, identity, and community.
