02/10/2026
Opening hours this weekend:
Saturday 12–16
Sunday 12 –16
Fruit of Debt by Afrang Nordlöf Malekian
For the exhibition at Cowgirl Gallery, presents new, site-specific works. Three brass sculptures in the form of jewellery trees rise from mounds of soil. Necklaces hang from their branches, falling towards the ground. One of them bears a gilded pomegranate. The starting point is a golden pomegranate necklace that the artist’s grandmother smuggled out of Iran in her bra as a wedding gift for Nordlöf Malekian’s mother.
The pomegranate is also the fruit that, in Greek mythology, bound Persephone to the underworld. The installation weaves myth and family history together through an exploration of the pomegranate as a gift, which in many stories deceive the receiver.
Alongside the sculptures, Cowgirl Gallery have produced a sound installation which echoes through the space. The composition is inspired by the greek avant garde composer Iannis Xenakis’s percussion piece Persephassa (1969), whose title is an ancient form of Persephone’s name. Its metallic strikes and rattling textures recall the sound of jewellery touching jewellery. As the sounds move around Nordlöf Malekian’s jewellery trees, they connect the composition to the myth, the necklaces and the gilded pomegranate they bear.
Afrang Nordlöf Malekian (b. 1995) is an Iranian-Swedish artist based in Berlin. Through installation, performance and storytelling, he explores how cultures of exile change and become hybridised in everyday life. His practice draws on mythology, archives and personal memories to listen closely to history’s silent actors, tracing how their stories and dreams can transform traditional modes of thought.
Curated by Selma Modéer Wiking
Video by Ren Azuma
Cowgirl Gallery
Karlshamnsgatan 4
