The House by Mehrdad Naraghi (February 6, 2010) 
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Categories / Conceptual Photography / Interiors / / Click here to open comments section, click again when done to close / 1 Comment
Curator Statement by Elie Domit
Beauty can be found in the decay, and the haunted can be inspiring, but what is at the roots of this decidedly odd interest in old, decrepit, moldering places? In Mehrdad Naraghi’s work I find a visual beauty to these structures that transcends their past utility. We feel the signs and symbols of habitation in the house and its space, remembrance and meaning. Protector, memory store, place in the world, a house is all these things, and it can be like that anywhere. We begin to see that spaces are actually more than the sum of their parts, that there are intimacies and experiences that connect us with the houses and rooms we grew up in, that are deeply rooted, and which form a core part of our experiences, memories and dreams. The artist wants to unlock some of those memories and touch on collective memories of our own. We see the rooms themselves and the objects and details within them as keys to understanding. In a visually poetic way Naraghi reveals hidden aspects of our experience of space. I read his work as both sensitive and sensual interpretations of enclosures, inside/outside, and other spatial phenomena, evoking and referencing such concepts as the nest, the shell, the corner, the drawer, etc. These visuals want to be savored slowly by our eyes.
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The sense of emptiness of a house whose occupants have departed is somehow striking for me. There is a profound feeling -somewhat- strange about the abandoned houses. Most of the time there is a sad story behind it; forced immigration, need for money, grown children who have left or even death.
We can feel it through the remains which occupy a place here and there. The things that have been forgotten or ignored to be taken along seem useless now. In addition there are objects with memories which were left intentionally untouched so as to be forgotten or maybe left to be part of a history.
Time plays the main role for this abandonment. The pictures of large gatherings, child’s birthdays, wedding parties and ... are covered with dust and left on the drawer. Yes these are all reminders that time is passing.
Live memories of moments have continued their life and have led us to an essential question. Which one is more real, a person who was sitting on the arm chair and has been recorded in my mind or the empty chair? It’s left for me to believe that its a typical characteristic of human existence which we can feel, hear and smell, even in absence.
Mehrdad Naraghi (1978) lives and works in Tehran, Iran.
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