MEHREGAN MEYSAMI

Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting series is oriented through a political-historical horizon, reflecting on the definition of human and political life through re-interpretation of history and re-contextualization of images and archival materials in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution in 1979. This body of work is situated in the liminal space between “then and now”, “abstraction and representation”, “absence and presence”. It depicts an interstice, where it is as poetic as it is political, where the knowledge is never in view, but always found in the gaps. It embodies the poetics and dialectical epistemology of language in relation to the fleeting ambiguity of our experiences—particularly in a historical context.

"Mehregan Meysami tilldelas ett av årets stipendier för sin finkänsliga användning av

grafiken i gestaltandet av en personlig resa, där minnet glider mellan det privata och det allmängiltiga. Hennes serier av grafiska bilder utgår ifrån avgörande historiska skeenden. De skapas som lager på lager, vilka långsamt förvanskas i mötet med medium och material. Likt avstannade ögonblick i en sönderklippt berättelse, full av glapp och mellanrum som bjuder in oss till medskapande av en djupare, poetisk sanning.

Genom sin konstnärliga fördjupning i de grafiska processerna, visar oss Meysami deras aktualitet som poetiska verktyg."

-Ann-Margret Lindells Stipendiefond

Clusters, Nebulae, Comets,

OR THE GRADUAL SHAPESHIFTING MASS

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.

REVOLVITIS,

OR THE GRADUAL SHAPESHIFTING MASS

Cyanotype on canvas

85 cm x 120 cm x 3 cm

2023

Original Photograph by David Burnett “Iranians protesting against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi near Tehran University in January 1979”.

Alteration Mehregan Meysami 2023

THE GRADUAL SHAPESHIFTING MASS (IV)

Cyanotype on cotton

74 cm x 110 cm x 2 cm

Photographer unknown. “Anti Shah Demonstration” 1979, Iran. Alteration Mehregan Meysami 2023

Celestial Objects.

OR THE EARTHLY ENTITITES (I)

Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g

65 cm x 50 cm

2022

I remember when I was flipping the book of “Photographs of Iranian Revolution in 1979”, I immediately recognized my grandmother (from the bottom line: the third person from the right) and other familiar faces. This encounter made this ‘historical’ book a ‘personal’ experience for me, as if I’m flipping through a family album.

A poetic reinterpretation of historical images*. Where in a dialectic conversation the historical and the personal merges with the political.The motifs of ‘Stars’ is a reference to a political poem known as ‘The Winter is Over’, or ‘ A forest of Stars’ written by Saeed Soltanpour who was executed in 1981 by the authorities of the Islamic republic.

*photo references:

1- Archive photo: Assembly of Experts election, 1979, Tehran ,Iran

2- Orbium planetarum terram complectentium scenographia, Published Amstelodami : Apud Gerardum Valk & Petrum Schenk, 1708.

Celestial Objects.

OR THE EARTHLY ENTITITES (II)

Photo transfer, Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g

40 cm x 39 cm

2022

*photo references:

1-Archive photo: Assembly of Experts election, 1979, Tehran , Iran

2-Atlas designed to illustrate Burritt’s Geography of the heavens . Contributor Names: Mattison, Hiram, 1811-1868, Burritt, Elijah H. (Elijah Hinsdale), 1794-1838.

Celestial Objects.

OR THE EARTHLY ENTITITES (III)

Photo transfer, Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g

55 cm x 42 cm

2022

*photo references:

1-Archive photo: Assembly of Experts election, 1979, Tehran ,Iran

2-Atlas designed to illustrate Burritt’s Geography of the heavens . Contributor Names: Mattison, Hiram, 1811-1868, Burritt, Elijah H. (Elijah Hinsdale), 1794-1838.

Celestial Objects.

OR THE EARTHLY ENTITITES (VI)

Photo transfer, Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g

55 cm x 42 cm

2022

Gorg-va-Meesh [wolf and sheep]

Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g, wax, paraffin

35 cm x 50 cm

2022

Dog-human

Cyanotype on Rives BFK paper 300g

35 cm x 50 cm

2022