Opening at Aaran Projects on 12th January
On view until 29th January 2018

In a data-driven era, when monitors behave as frequent portals between virtual and physical, self-images readily practiced. And akin to the industrial revolution, humans have leveraged the tools at-hand, particularly social media, to transition this innate practice from an intricate, lifelong craft to a fast-paced, manufactured, yet hodgepodge production. We are image-making machines. We transform—even decode—ourselves into data, transmitting them to others in hopes to seek who we are through their gaze.
This series is a commentary on the process—as well as the stages—of manufacturing self-image: performance, production, display, gaze, reflection and pleasure. Each piece loosely plays on a stage and reveals its visceral, yet absurd experience. Leveraging various image-making techniques, Hoda Zarbaf transmits her reality into sculptural animations. She further echoes these distortions into another image, deeming the “image” itself to be merely a representation. And in the process, she comments on the cycle of making the self-image amid technological revolution in the contemporary era.

Excerpts from catalogue by Sanam Samanian