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_______________________________________________________________ Nooshin Farhid, 'Shallow Water, Deep Skin', 2012, digital video, installation view and stills
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_______________________________________________________________ Nooshin Farhid, 'Femoralis', 2012, digital video, still
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Nooshin Farhid,'Stripped', 2012, C-print on watercolour paper, framed
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Nooshin Farhid, Silence, C-print, 2012, 120 x 75 cm, mounted and framed
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Nooshin Farhid
Shallow Water Deep Skin
5 May- 3 June 2012
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The main video work Shallow Water, Deep Skin has as its focus a single character – the political activist and entomologist Shahin Nawai. Shahin is currently undertaking research at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin where she has worked for a number of years. In tandem with her entomological work in Tehran University Shahin was a founder member of the largest women’s organisation in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian revolution 1979. The organisation was a platform for women to mobilise against the infringement of their rights by the Islamic government. She was forced to leave her country and live in exile.
The work by Farhid explores two seemingly different and what might appear irreconcilable differences – the scientific study of the insect world and the world of political activism. Her approach is to explore, from the outset two historically familiar paradigms of activity, and, as distinct paradigms, establish their frameworks, terms of reference, and boundaries. The video explores these perceived boundaries and introduces elements of fantasy and imagination into
their individually complex narratives. What emerges is a set of fragmented narratives that intersect and interweave through these boundary laden activities, breaking down their homogeneity and opening up new spaces of conceptual potential. There are elements of conflict, humour, fear and pure documentation drawn together from the process of precision editing of visual and textual material derived from a range of sources including original footage filmed in Berlin, Scotland, Suffolk and Oxfordshire.
Nooshin Farhid approaches film as collage, working with on and offline material and with editing and animation techniques alike. Narratives emerge through this process of visual and audio ‘realignment’. Her written texts oscillate between the poetic and the factual, the personal and the philosophic, recited by actors
in the form of voiceovers and overlaid onto a composed soundtrack created by the artist. The spoken word weaves the fragmented narratives together contextually and rhythmically. Farhid makes distinctive use of filmic genres and tropes. Nonetheless film is not a primary concern, but the portrayal of the human condition both in a direct documentary format and an allegorical style.
About
Nooshin Farhid was born in Tehran, Iran and now lives and works in London. She came to the UK as a political refugee. She has shown widely internationally. Her work Borderline’ 2007 was presented as part of the Marrakesh Biennale 2012 and during 2011 she has participated in the ‘1st International Video Art Festival’ at Katara Art Center, Doha, Qatar, ‘Rencontres Internationales’, Paris/Berlin/Madrid, video library, La Gaîté lyrique, Paris. A solo Exhibition of ‘Conic Trilogy’ ( 2010) was presented at the art and media gallery Beaconsfield London as well her contributions to 'Gaming in Waziristan’, an earlier show at the same venue. She also showed in ‘The Pavement and the Beach’, Paradise Row, London, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam and Mohsen Gallery, Tehran, Iran within last year.
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