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If you look at Vault and images of the Azadi Tower, it’s easy to see the visual connection between the two. In particular, Vault’s upward curving form echoes the inside pointed arch of the original. But Vault isn’t Azadi Tower. Not only is it only part of the original, it has been created in an entirely different context in a new country. I couldn’t help but think that Vault includes a bit of Canada in its embracing and welcoming curve.

Several two-dimensional works by Amanat are also in Where/Between. Reminiscence 1 (below) collages photographs of an idyllic Vancouver scene looking west across English Bay with an oval-like platform inside the museum in the base of Azadi Tower. The platform looks like it’s floating on the surface of the water. But the two photos don’t really mesh together all that well. Inside and outside battle one another for prominence. I felt like I was looking at a work where the past is still too painful to be integrated into the present.

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Sun

has several works in the exhibition that really got to the heart of being in two places at once.

Where Do You Come From? is a weave of paper maps of the world: one is right side up, the other upside down. The work shows geographic locations that are visible to the front and locations that are not visible because they’re hidden by the weave and face away from the viewer. The hidden upside portion is a literal reference to where Valamanesh now lives: he’s ‘Down Under’ on the other side of the world in Adelaide, Australia.