Melbourne Art Fair
Ali Sharabdar
20-23 February 2025
ALSO SHOWING: MATTHEW ASLING, KIRSTY BUDGE, GRANT NIMMO, KATE TUCKER
Daine Singer is pleased to present a solo exhibition of watercolours and free-standing sculptures by Ali Sharabdar. The work is based on a complex fantasy narrative Sharabdar has built that draws on Persian history and folklore, Zoroastrianism, a concern with climate change, the history of early colonial winemaker James Busby, and Shiraz wine. Sharabdar’s watercolours tell his mythical interpretation of the tale of James Busby (1802-1871), through a blend of Persian and Australian artistic and cultural influences.
James Busby is best known for his role in drafting New Zealand’s 1835 Declaration of Independence and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, but he is also famed for introducing wine to Australia, by bringing vine stock from France to Australia in 1832. It is the history of Busby’s pioneering viticulture and the introduction of shiraz to Australia that has piqued Sharabdar’s interest. The grape that we in Australia call shiraz is known elsewhere as syrah, and Sharabdar’s speculation as to why the grape is called shiraz forms the basis for him to imagine an alternative history related to his own birthplace, the city of Shiraz in Iran (Persia).
The Iranian city of Shiraz has a rich history of wine culture stretching back thousands of years, with wine being an integral part of the local culture, industry and ceremony, up until the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the banning of alcohol for Islamic Iranians. Wine features prominently throughout classical Persian poetry and in the Zoroastrian religion, both of which influence Sharabdar’s work.
Ali Sharabdar (Ali Farahi Ghasrabunasr) was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1986, and came to Australia in 2013 as a refugee, he has lived in Melbourne since 2013 on a bridging visa. Sharabdar held his first solo exhibition at Daine Singer in 2022, and also exhibited in Friends and Family at Daine Singer in 2019 and at The Art Room in 2019. Sharabdar is a nom de plume, a Persian word meaning the person that provides and relishes wine.
