A Duo Photo Exhibition by Alireza Fani and Setare Sanjari

Group Exhibition
September 27  —  October 09, 2019
-1 × Underground

Setare Sanjari and Alireza Fani’s duo exhibition is about how we perceive the world around us through photographic representation: from wandering around the green spaces along Modares Highway, away from its bustle, to enjoying the occasional blue sky in the midst of its usual grey days, while passively watching life fall into pieces. Setare Sanjari will exhibit her works in two separate series of “Into the Wind” and “Decomposition,” and Alireza Fani will represent his four series of works as handmade books, namely “Along Modares,” “In Tehran’s Solitude,” “Twelve Blue Squares,” and “The Privacy.”

In both of her series, Setare Sanjari alludes to destruction and dissolution. There is the impeccable, dramatic staging in painterly, still life compositions of “Into the Wind,” whereas she implicitly addresses the themes of destruction and degeneration in her “Decomposition” series. “Into the Wind” is a classic, glamorous, yet gaudy and artificial, representation of the things that seem to be caught in an unstable transition on a path towards change. In contrast, “Decomposition” has a minimalist, naked, and modernist look that eulogizes sorrow. It is the destruction of a transient beauty, without the ostentatious displays of grief.

The four series that Alireza Fani represents here emphasize the reproducibility of the image. “Along Modares” consists of lively shots, lush with grass and plants, in stark contrast to the coarse and dingy urban highways crisscrossing the town. “In Tehran’s Solitude” depicts Tehran’s streets and alleys in a silence that is reminiscent of a Friday evening. Along the same lines, “Twelve Blue Squares” are bright blue frames of Tehran’s uncrowded days that are few and far between. With no particular interest in flânerie, these photographs reflect the everyday life of the people in the city as much as its body. Unlike the general approach of the other three series, “The Privacy” reflects upon the private relationships of couples in the privacy of their homes. Much like the concept of Diaspora in its contemporary sense, these homes transcend time, space, and geographical location. The spaces are in fact a reinterpretation of the wider scope of society. The only difference is that the owners of the homes decide on the behavioral codes of that space. They have chosen how to define spatiotemporal boundaries in the context of their privacy. It is a kind of migration from the public arena to the private space of home and a redefinition of geography in the city. Home is a spiritual homeland for the people we see in these photographs, staring at the camera with their nonjudgmental eyes.

Series