Horse in the Bedroom, 2012, by Farid Rasulov
In a Farid Rasulov installation, you’re surrounded by the familiar — chairs, tables and rugs, rugs, rugs — and yet there’s something wonderfully off and fantastical about the experience. Can an interior bewilder and beguile? Rasulov’s do — and have throughout his nearly decade-long career. The Azerbaijan artist — who was formally trained as a doctor before switching to contemporary art a year after med school — is known for taking simple everyday interiors, often done in Occidental styles, and covering every inch in traditional Azerbaijan carpet patterns, from floor to ceiling to chandeliers, cushioned sofas to kitchen counters to bookshelves, right down to the individual books. The only point of contrast in these works are the minimal all-white sculptures of living creatures, like dogs and cats, that he places within. The result is a cool collision of East and West, foreground and background, the mundane and the decorative….