Shana Abdollahian

Shana Abdollahian (b. 1996, Redding, England) has a BFA in Painting from the Art University of Tehran, where she currently studies for her MFA in Painting. Her works have been included in two group exhibitions. Abdollahian lives and works in Karaj.


“No. 9, Rose Alley, Khatereh BLVD, Karaj. Abdollahian’s House”

A house consists of a number of walls, doors, windows, and floors that turns into a home when “we” are “present” there. It is as though we are here to make memories and commit them to memory. Memories gradually turn pale, the details of memories get lost, and what remains on our minds is only the setting, which, in turn, starts to fade. Eventually, nothing remains but momentary images, colors, and sounds. As I encounter my mental images of memories with objective reality after months and years, I have found a stark contrast. It is as if you cannot challenge the relentless memory in order to depict vague recollections with aesthetic limitations. The images are monuments for memories that are perhaps nothing but body of form and color presented in abstraction, which only makes sense to the owner of that particular memory in the painting. Thus, instead of depicting vague memories, I decided to represent a lost place out of the context of the memories from my family, with almost real-life proportions, making use of sound as an abstract element to summon memories. In this series, the sound of videos recorded from bitter and sweet memories, laughter and cry, fight and festivity, together with the sound of the violin, unfurls sorrows of the lost memories of a family.

Shana Abdollahian, untitled, from “Whispering Memories, series, oil on canvas, 140×210 cm, 2020
Shana Abdollahian, untitled, from “Whispering Memories, series, oil on canvas, 140×210 cm, 2020
Shana Abdollahian, untitled, from “Whispering Memories, series, oil on canvas, 140×210 cm, 2020