Writing on the Wall

July 2024

Artist: Newsha Tavakolian

Based on her photographic flaws, mishaps and mistakes, technical or otherwise, Newsha
Tavakolian’s recent show, And They Laughed at Me, bares a familiar, haunting (and daunting)
resemblance to the reality outside the gallery walls, in Tehran. Fragmented, blurred,
overexposed and fading and in some cases intentionally manipulated photographs, taken
between 1997 – 2000 and after 2017, form Tavakolian’s keen visual language that explores the
boundaries between art and photojournalism.

Head bent,
Dried up, tired, resigned
The unyielding sky, the barren heath
In this fertile field
There still stands
In waiting
A blossoming sunflower
(Poem By Nazli Ghassemi)
A retelling of a personal but socially relatable story, the curation and grouping of photographs
can be viewed as visual clues to decipher the intended. Tavakolian succeeds in creating an
atmosphere of nostalgia wherein hopeless resilience of a nation is highlighted through her
alternate mode of artistic documentation style.
For now, the writing is indeed on the wall, just as the labels suggest.
“And They Laughed at Me” on view at Parallel Circuit, Tehran.

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