Brothers Saman and Sasan Oskouei, formerly known on the street art circuit as Icy & Sot, have shifted their long-running collaborative practice toward a quieter, more sculptural register with The Weight of Less, an ongoing body of carved wooden work. Rather than painting on found surfaces, the brothers now excavate them: a school desk, a door, an industrial pallet, and a wooden ladder are each perforated with irregular, cavity-like holes that dissolve their original function while preserving their recognizable silhouette. The result reads less like destruction than negotiation, as if each object were being asked to give something up in exchange for a new kind of presence. According to the artists, the carving process pulls back layer after layer of material to surface “hidden rhythms, patterns, and relationships”, suggesting that absence itself becomes an active compositional tool rather than a simple void.
Born in Tabriz, Iran, and now based in Brooklyn, the Oskouei brothers built their reputation through stencil-based street art tackling borders, state violence, and the excesses of capitalism, and The Weight of Less channels that same instinct for social commentary through subtler means. The choice of subject matter, ordinary furniture and tools tied to labor, education, and domestic routine, keeps the political undertone intact even as the visual language grows more restrained and physically lighter. By carving away rather than adding on, the duo asks what remains structurally and symbolically once utility is stripped from an object, turning each punctured form into a meditation on fragility, labor, and the quiet violence embedded in the things people use without a second thought.
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in Bahia.