At first glance, Rahimi's works may seem to be produced by a reiteration of certain elementary rules: an observation point that is almost always frontal, overlapping planes, and openings towards an undefined elsewhere. But, in contrast with this, his visual syntax is full of variations and inventions; and his works resist any interpretative attempt that fails to take account of their ambiguity and ambivalence. The first, and most evident, of these ambiguities has to do with the question I have asked: what exactly is Rahimi painting? The title of the series – Screen Room – offers a possible answer: it explicitly refers to the fact that we find ourselves inside rooms, although the floors, doors and windows of these conjectural architectural interiors do not seem to stay in their proper places. There is something incongruous in all of these overlapping volumes, transparencies and penetrations, and in the alternation of cold and warm colours. It is worth asking a further question: what kind of rooms has Rahimi imagined? At this point the other word in the title – “screen” – gives us a clue as to what we are we looking at: a screen, a digital screen to be precise.
From Kappa Noun exhibition catalogue, text by Saverio Verini
Screen Rooms, Installation view, Kappa Noun, Bologna (April 6 - May 15, 2023)