Subjectivity and Objectivity
Fatemeh Baigmoradi
November 1 – 29, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION: November 1, from 6 – 8 pm
Aura is a quality integral to an artwork that cannot be communicated through mechanical reproduction – such as photography. The term was used by Walter Benjamin in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. Photography, constantly, has been used to record the special and ordinary moments of
our life. Time has an aura. Each second is unique and non-repeatable. On the other hand, the way that our minds recall our past (memories) is like capturing them as a copy of the reality that doesn’t have the aura of reality.
I’ve been living with my parents in the very first house that I know for the first 18 years of my life. Then I moved to the other city but I’d used any chance to go back to see my parents and the house. Between 2008 and 2011, I had captured several photos of that space and my childhood trophies in that house. The house held a unique place in my
childhood, much as my mother and my father did. Objects and locations, which carry the weight of their histories, have aura for me. Now in the Age of digital photography and reproduction, I find my old negative and photos as an object, which contain history. They are objects from my past and the subject of these photos is so personal for me. Reality is not changeable but our memories can get unclear and defaced through the time. That’s how after years, two individuals may have the same memories from an event with different or even conflicted details. It seems our memories look like photographs that passage of time can affect them.
As a toddler, I was a devoted daydreamer. I took these photos around 10 years ago to attempt to revitalize my old cozy daydreaming atmosphere. After some specific stages in my life, my obsession with my past reduced somehow. Those moments are so far and untouchable as much as my favorite fiction books that I placed them under my bed in my parents’ house in Iran.