Clusters, Nebulae, Comets,
OR THE GRADUAL SHAPESHIFTING MASS
(From the Shapeshifting Series)
Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g
60 x 45 cm (each)
2022
(Original photograph: Maryam Zandi, Anti-Shah demonstrations, 1979, Iran. Alteration: Mehregan Meysami, 2022)
“People” is one of those words, that its connotation is constantly changing and metamorphosing. It belongs to the group of words that have been subject of the most analogy, misuse and propagation, varying from a “unified body” to a “theatrical fiction” to a “revolutionary image” with a “heroic tag” to a “faceless-generic mass”.
The word “mass” is originated from the Old French "masse", meaning "irregular shaped lump, body of unshaped", derivative from Latin "massa" meaning "kneaded dough, lump, which adheres together like dough”.
As the semantics transforms across time, the transformation of an image is also inevitable, while being subject of major manipulations, shifts, analogies.
The analogy between martyrdom and “becoming star” has a long tradition and in the literature of resistance and has been a common expression for those who have been killed in the way to freedom.
What is being looked at here, is a “mass”, gradually shapeshifting from the flesh to stars: cluster, nebulae, comets.