Untitled, 2016, slide projection, digital video, and resin coated photogram. Courtesy the artist.
In her work, Golnaz Esmaili meditates on the after-effects of memory and suspended time on objects and spaces. For Queens International 2016, the artist presents a film in which an abstract, color-tinted 35mm slide projection is layered on top of a digital video. In the video, the camera pans across spaces that are at once empty and full of life, both littered with the traces of what previously occurred in these landscapes and full of remains to be recycled and used again. The slides add a rich materiality to the video while obscuring the details of these vacant sites, producing an effect that is reminiscent of a dream or distant memory being recalled. Accompanying the video work are Esmaili’s resin-coated photograms of flowers. These photographic images are made without a camera by placing an object directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material and exposing it to light. The physical property of the thick resin panel resists the ephemerality of the photographic images, while the colors seem to bring life to their inanimate existence.
From the artist:
Pioneer Plants. Pioneer species -- hardly species. barely plants.
succession - the growth of plant life -- in a place--previously void of life - a place where all life (and remains of life) was completely destroyed.
Primary succession -- -- almost no nutrients (or soil) - region where pioneer plants begin to grow. -- where a glacier once was. where plant life once was. -- --- where there is already nutrient rich soil. There used to be plant life -- - but it was destroyed by --- or -- natural
disaster. *
Absent Spaces. dense sites -- hardly places. barely spaces.
Suspension - the growth of -- life -- in a place -- previously void of life - a place where all life (and remains of life) was completely removed.
Rock succession -- -- almost -- nutrients (or soil) - region where grit begins to grow. -- where a --- once was. where memory once was. -- --- where there is already ---- rich history. There used to be lights -- - but it was replenished by colors or – a field of nuance.
Abstract segment from “PRIMARY SUCCESSION VS. SECONDARY SUCCESSION”
Golnaz Esmaili received an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University (2012), an MFA in Communication Design from Tehran University, Iran (2009), and a BFA from Azad Art & Architecture University, Iran (2007). She is a founding member of the collective ALLGOLD, who was in residency at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY in 2015. Her work has been exhibited at Parkingallery Projects, Tehran, Iran (2014), Aaran Gallery, Tehran, Iran (2013), Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (2012), Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France (2012), and Oi Futuro/Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2011).