Establishing Shot; Interior, Night - Exterior, Day; without Antagonist and Extra (Absefid Waterfall)

2013 - Photography (Photography)

Shahab Fotouhi

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Shahab Fotouhi’s photographic series Establishing Shot; Interior, Night – Exterior, Day; without Antagonist and Extra consists of four C-prints that at first glance would appear to be travel posters for Iran, in that each features a beautifully shot image of an Iranian waterfall. Upon closer inspection, one will find the superimposition over the photographs of a script that looks like code. The text is actually a transcription of a political debate that occurred between two 2009 Iranian presidential campaign candidates, but with all the words removed, leaving only the punctuation. Fotouhi satirizes the debate itself, pointing out the words exchanged to be essentially meaningless, and potentially revealing a “watershed” moment in Iranian history.

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Shahab Fotouhi uses sculpture, video and photography to present moments of suspension, merging the playful and the serious. Fotouhi studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany and his works have been exhibited in Too Much Pollution to Demonstrate, curated by Amiel Grumberg at Apexart Gallery, New York; Ethnic Marketing, curated by Tirdad Zolghadr at Azad Gallery, Tehran; and the Loop Art Fair, Barcelona.

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Colors:

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• political.a.01
• review.n.02
• address.n.03
• geopolitics.n.01
• code.n.01
• argument.n.03
• sarcasm.n.01