Untitled 1989

Curator: Before us, we have an Untitled mixed-media collage incorporating photography by Behjat Sadr, created in 1989. What's your initial impression? Editor: A kind of unsettling calm. The harsh, almost brutal texture on either side presses in on the tranquil beach scene. It’s as though the beauty is being consumed by something… heavier. Curator: Precisely. Consider how Sadr, associated with Iranian modernism, uses the rigid geometry of the doorway as a framing device. It both isolates and emphasizes the landscape. Semiotically, the door acts as a threshold. Editor: I’m more intrigued by those flanking masses. The apparent layering of materials—are those photographs too? How has she worked them? They evoke not just a landscape, but stratified earth, years compressed into strata. Perhaps hinting at both time and construction. Curator: Note the sharp contrast between the monochromatic textures and the full-color photograph. It introduces a dynamic tension. One might even say a rupture in the picture plane. It evokes the push and pull between the real and the represented. The formal elements guide us. Editor: I find it captivating that the ocean is visible through the portal. I wonder, what does it mean to have this manufactured opening presenting something inherently natural? Curator: Sadr has long explored themes of displacement and fractured identity. This door might symbolize a search for belonging, for finding a stable perspective amid shifting landscapes. Editor: Interesting thought. Looking closer, it makes you wonder about the labor, and what it means to piece together scraps of images into something new—the material act is as meaningful as the image. Curator: The use of collage itself disrupts any sense of conventional perspective, offering instead multiple viewpoints, a visual fragmentation that speaks to the complexities of modern life. Editor: For me, that disruption is precisely where its power lies. The labor, and her intervention into these assembled materials make you pause, really consider the image… what you are seeing… and what you are not. Curator: Indeed, the piece demands a more active engagement from the viewer, inviting us to unpack its layers of meaning. Editor: Yes, Sadr makes you re-examine your own position towards image construction and consumption. What more could we ask for?