Once at Present: Contemporary Art of the Bay Area Iranian Diaspora (2019)
Shadi Yousefian
Memories 6, 2018
Original album photos, translucent paper packets, and epoxy resin on wood panel
Courtesy of the artist and ADVOCARTSY, Los Angeles, CA
Although memories are essential to understanding our contemporary selves, one also has to relinquish aspects of the past in order to be fully present. Going through old photo albums that she had once carefully put together, Yousefian revisits these treasured containers of memories, cutting out faces and places with which she had once felt a strong attachment. Some of the pieces in her Memories series are also coated over with multiple layers of resin to further distance the viewer from these representations of memories. The effect is to both preserve this archive of sentiments and attachments, but to also embrace the passage of time and fragility of memory. Her work in this series evokes a holistic approach — the idea that represented in each face, place, and memory is the entire composition of a life.
Once at Present: Contemporary Art of the Bay Area Iranian Diaspora
March 29 - April 20, 2019
Minnesota Street Project
San Francisco, CA