Body of Evidence
February 6 – April 4, 2020
Fatemeh Baigmoradi’s series "It's Hard to Kill", begun in 2017, was motivated by the fact that her parents have only a few surviving photos that portray them before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Baigmoradi found that she had become increasingly fixated on the lost history that those absent photographs represented.
Using other people's family photos, she reenacts the moments when her father, a member of the National Front party, burned many of the pictures that portrayed his family, friends and colleagues, due to the fear of being arrested. This same experience is frequently shared by different people from different nations, during and after social revolutions.
The burnt erasure of certain individuals leaves a lingering halo, suggesting that even when people’s history crosses over into oblivion a kind of palimpsest is left behind. This visual evidence of loss focuses attention on omissions in memory, history and cultural representation: How does self-censorship affect our memory and personal history and what does it leave in place of what has been erased?
Fatemeh Baigmoradi (b. 1984) is an artist born and raised in Iran. In 2008 she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography at University of Tehran. In 2012, Baigmoradi moved to the US and in 2017 she received her Master of Arts in photography at University of New Mexico in 2017. Themes of loss and identity as well as transitions both physical and emotional define much of the work. She has participated in numerous exhibitions shows in the United States, Iran, England, France and China. Her series "It's Hard to Kill" was recently featured at Paris Photo.
