Slug, 2020 by Abbas Akhavan

The four-and-a-half-minute video, Slug, ruminates on the form of the common snapdragon, exploring its visual associations with the face and the potential for speech. The word "slug," beyond its use for a shell-less terrestrial gastropod, also refers to the black section of frames in video editing. The slow, visual pulsing of the caption [CRICKETS] on the black screen evokes the sound of crickets, followed by an abrupt cut to a close-up of a burgundy snapdragon. Hands gently manipulate the flower, squeezing its sides, making its petals open and close like a mouth. As this happens, the flower begins to describe some of the most common human nightmares.

About the artist

Abbas Akhavan’s (b. 1977, Tehran, Iran; lives/works: Montreal and Berlin) practice ranges across site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video, sculpture, and performance. The direction of his research has been deeply influenced by the specificity of the sites in which he works, including the architectures that house them, the economies that surround them, and the individuals that frequent them.

The concept of the garden—and by extension, the spaces and species just outside the home, such as the backyard, public parks, and other domesticated landscapes—have been foundational components in his work. In recent large-scale installations, Akhavan recreates cultural sites affected by international conflicts, attending to the multivalent ways in which ongoing geopolitics fight for control of historical narratives. Through his work, Akhavan engages with formal, material, and social legacies that shape the boundaries between public and private, domesticated and wild, hostile and hospitable.

Akhavan received an MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2006), and a BFA from Concordia University, Montréal (2004). Upcoming and recent solo exhibitions include La Biennale di Venezia, Canada Pavilion (2026); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2026); Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2025); Bangkok Kunsthalle (2025); Copenhagen Contemporary and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (2023). He is the recipient of the Fellbach Triennial Award (2017); Sobey Art Award (2015); Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014); and the Berliner Kunstpreis (2012).