Back to Square One

San Jose, CA | January 25 – February 15, 2025 | Artists: Pantea Karimi and Irene Carvajal

Back to Square One is a story of conquest, erasure, and appropriation. Through the cultural and archival research of artists Pantea Karimi and Irene Carvajal the beauty of decorative tile-work gets deconstructed and investigated as a carrier of historic and cultural narratives. For this exhibition, through printmaking, drawing, installation, and social practice we engage with traditional and historic tile-making methods, representation and iconography. Back to Square One unpacks historical narratives that are embedded in the decorative. By working in collaboration, we also touch on themes of appropriation, ownership and labor. The project interrogates the often-overlooked hands and intentions behind the creation of tiles. Whose stories are favored, what stories are silenced? How can we decode the narratives hidden within the decorative? The exhibition seeks to ignite conversations around the power of visual culture and how we can utilize this power to add our voices and our agendas to a broader and more diverse global conversation.