MELIKA FOROUZAN - EXPOSURE emerging photographers showcase

In Abeyance

The self-experience of living in a specific time of Covid-19 when the daily death rate from the outbreak was high and the impact of great social and political events on people’s daily life was inevitable made me think more about the concept of loss and death. It seemed that we were all stuck somewhere in the present, without going back to the past and without the ability to throw ourselves into the future. Waiting, suspension, and loss meant to us more than ever throughout the time of the pandemic. By using the instantaneous nature of photographic representation in capturing the existing reality of the pandemic through the approach of Vanitas Still Life paintings of 17th century within the memento mori tradition, I have taken photos of tables which have been arranged with melted candles, withered flowers, moldy, and rotten foods and fruits and symbolic objects of vanitas still life paintings like skull and timepieces to allude to the parties that never have happened. This photo belongs to the series of “In Abeyance” that shows pictures of loss and absence to remind us the mortality of the human and the fleeting nature of the pleasure. Hours, days, and months passed as we felt more and more the absence of our loved ones and the loss of time which could have been allocated to be together and escape from the boredom of daily life. This is an attempt to preserve the collective memory of all those who have lived in the specific period of pandemic and dealt with the concept of loss and waiting.

BIOGRAPHY

Melika Forouzan Pour is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist living in Calgary, Canada. She graduated in the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Art in photography from the University of Tehran, Iran. She took her second Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Calgary. In her works which are mainly based on the concept of place attachment and memory, she constantly shifts between photography, painting and printmaking to explore identity and sense of belonging through her connections to places and referring to personal and shared memories.

Her academic background in photography and her vast experiences in painting have helped her to combine the visual language of photography and painting in her artworks.

She has published articles in the field of family photography, collective memory, and the role of personal photos in shaping collective memories and social history in Iranian Art Journals.