Shahriar Mazandi I ALTERED REALMS
 

photography

 

Curator: Desislava Zafirova

 

24.02.2025 - 24.03.2025

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Shahriar Mazandi shows for the first time to a Bulgarian audience his art, inspired by the multicultural influence that has influenced his creative and life path. As a product of the Anglo-Iranian multiculturalism, his searches that accompany his work are influenced by Jalal al-Din Rumi from the East and A E Housman from the West. Based in England, where he grew up, he is close to both Judaism and Christianity and seeks truth in contradiction. The author chooses a country like Bulgaria as a starting point for his exhibition not by chance, but more than that - he finds a deep meaning in broadcasting his messages from a side, which is our country in a geopolitical aspect, namely the border of the Eastern and Western worlds.

Shahriar Mazandi's work concerns the visible and the invisible - that which lies beyond the boundaries of three-dimensional perception. His photographic work, which resembles what was known as solarization in the days of analog film, hints at the 4th, 5th dimensions, and beyond that which can be imagined but not perceived.

His conventional photographs are minimalist, relying on a reduction to key elements of composition with subjects often far and distant in vast landscapes - raising the question "are we like insignificant specks of dust in a vast universe or do each of us have a greater purpose?"

The fire-based series are mirrored and refracted six times through a mirror filter until they resemble Rorschach inkblots. They have no single fixed point of reference, but what is observed is subject to the viewer's perception. Some may see distorted anatomy, impossible zoomorphic forms, or any other form that emerges from the individual's own Pandora's box.

In contrast, cityscape photographs have a strong fixed focal point that acts as an “axis of the world,” with buildings or structures as connecting rods between this realm and those above and below.

Bridging the worlds of visual art, music, and poetry, his work explores the uncharted territories of human perception, language, and the subconscious. His practice defies categorization, combining traditional and digital techniques to create works that pulsate with an almost hypnotic intensity.

At the heart of Mazandi’s work is his unique approach to text and form. His early poetic experiments lay the foundations for a visual language that balances word and image, meaning and abstraction. His typographic experiments—often dense, multi-layered, and deconstructed—challenge the way we perceive language, challenging us to see words not simply as carriers of meaning, but as dynamic visual objects.

At the core of Mazandi's work is his unique approach to text and form. His early poetic experiments laid the foundations for a visual language that balanced word and image, meaning and abstraction. His typographic experiments – often dense, layered and deconstructed – challenge the way we perceive language, prompting us to see words not simply as bearers of meaning, but as dynamic visual objects.