Ala Ebtekar and Amir Fallah’s artworks are stepping stones of sorts, suggesting as many similarities as differences between such extremes.             

Ebtekar’s black and white drawings, sketched on paper, like studies for an oil-daubed masterpiece, Kushti warriors are integrated with B-Boy poses that simultaneously echo a faded era of popular culture while mirroring the integration of hip-hop culture into an equally pop mainstream today. Each figure rests under an ornamented dome-like arc; soldiers of the past forming a fortified structure with the equally macho posturing of rap artists, break-dancers and MCs.

Fallah meanwhile takes a more personal approach to explore notions of identity and masculinity. His second exhibition with The Third Line, he has here created a series of drawings on paper, large paintings, photographs and an installation all inspired by boyhood and ideas of what constitutes a ‘safe haven’.