Arash Nassiri's first institutional solo exhibition, 'A Bug's Life,' has opened at London's Chisenhale Gallery. The show features a moving-image commission set within a sculptural installation, following an insect puppet protagonist through a cavernous mansion in Los Angeles. The mansion is a 'Persian Palace'—a hybrid of Iranian and French Empire architectural styles that emerged in 1960s-70s Iran and was recreated by wealthy Iranian exiles in Los Angeles after the 1979 revolution. Nassiri, who is Tehran-born and Berlin-based, uses the film to explore themes of disorientation, displacement, and the ambiguous dual belonging of Iran's American diaspora.
The exhibition matters because it offers a nuanced artistic lens on the complex, historically contingent relationship between Iran and the West at a time of renewed upheaval for Iranians worldwide. By focusing on the architectural 'bubble' of the Iranian community in Los Angeles, Nassiri highlights how diaspora communities recreate and transform cultural forms, revealing contradictions between heritage, American life, and Western-influenced modernity. The work also serves as an archival act, documenting micro-styles that are disappearing as these houses are demolished, while making a broader metaphorical point about the experience of separation from one's homeland.