Shirin Salehi:
Back from a walk
February 16-22, 2021
Started in 2017, this project began when I moved to New York which coincided with the reading of the poem with the same title form the book, Poet in New York (1929-1930) by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. In an attempt to understand somehow the new space and my own circumstances as an immigrant once again, the gesture of inscribing the poem became essential to my personal experience.
The concepts of memory, concealment and secrecy have been very significant to my practice. These works were created starting with an intimate recitation and through repetition I searched for the ritualization of the process. I have not sought the inscriptions to be read nor understood at any time and the works try to remain faithful to the intimacy of its origin, hiding the writings through layers, sometimes literally, others conceptually.They are only a presence, a body and a past time. The intaglio prints are scrolled, the clay tablets are inscribed in Farsi, my mother tongue, as an illegible and indecipherable language for the western reader, and the secret letters are left folded.
However, one question remains at the end: Why do we need to inscribe and leave our mark, a trace, a sign? Something truly primitive occurs in this necessity, as if as long as the gesture lasts, everything becomes less ephemeral.
*Read Shirin Salehi’s interview with us here
*For more info on Shirin Salehi’s work, please visit her website and Instagram
Image list:
Image 1: Shirin Salehi, installation view of tablets and scrolls, 2018 - 2019, Etching on Japanese paper and black porcelain clay.
Image 2: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2017, Etching on Japanese paper and black porcelain clay, Detail.
Image 3: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2017, Etching on Japanese paper and black porcelain clay.
Image 4 : Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2018, Black porcelain clay and plaster. Detail.
Image 5: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2018, Black porcelain clay and plaster.
Image 6: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, Black porcelain clay and plaster.
Image 7: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, Black porcelain clay and plaster. Detail.
Image 8: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark Apple, 2020, Etching on kozu and hemp paper, and lithographic stone.
Image 9: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark, 2020, Black porcelain clay and lithographic stone.
Image 10: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, White porcelain clay and plaster.
Image 11: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, White porcelain clay and plaster. Detail.
Image 12: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark Apple, 2020, Black porcelain clay and lithographic stone.
Image 13: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark Apple, 2020, Black porcelain clay, etching on kozu and hemp paper, and lithographic stone.
Image 1: Shirin Salehi, installation view of tablets and scrolls, 2018 - 2019, Etching on Japanese paper and black porcelain clay.
Image 2: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2017, Etching on Japanese paper and black porcelain clay, Detail.
Image 3: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2017, Etching on Japanese paper and black porcelain clay.
Image 4 : Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2018, Black porcelain clay and plaster. Detail.
Image 5: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2018, Black porcelain clay and plaster.
Image 6: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, Black porcelain clay and plaster.
Image 7: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, Black porcelain clay and plaster. Detail.
Image 8: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark Apple, 2020, Etching on kozu and hemp paper, and lithographic stone.
Image 9: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark, 2020, Black porcelain clay and lithographic stone.
Image 10: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, White porcelain clay and plaster.
Image 11: Shirin Salehi, Back from a walk series, 2019, White porcelain clay and plaster. Detail.
Image 12: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark Apple, 2020, Black porcelain clay and lithographic stone.
Image 13: Shirin Salehi, The air a dark Apple, 2020, Black porcelain clay, etching on kozu and hemp paper, and lithographic stone.
Images © 2021 Shirin Salehi