Lot 334: MITRA TABRIZIAN

CITY, LONDON 2008
signed, titled, dated 2008 and numbered 2/5 on a label affixed to the reverse

122 by 250cm.; 48 by 98 3/8 in.

cibachrome print

Private Collection, London

Depicting business suit clad men and women in eerily staged scenes set in industrial or commercial venues devoid of human touch, Tabrizian's glossy and colour-saturated City, London (2008) explores the post-modern identity of the businessman and the harrowing conditions of contemporary, corporate life. Betraying the artist's disillusionment with the excessive functionalism of the present and future, these photos scathingly reveal the cracks in the unsound machine and mechanisms of capitalism, technological advancement and modern-day living. Acting as existentialist representations of current times, Tabrizian's models robotically pose in clinical compositions where everything seems to run smoothly but for a few disturbing elements; these elements expose the actual madness of the cold and artificial reality that we live in, the absurdity of our existence in such a reality, and the effect that this existence has on us in psychological terms.

Tabrizian's bizarre and incongruous compositions may be referring, in this way, to the writings of the French critics and sociologist Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard has noted that we are progressively moving towards a world in which the basic signs and meanings of the systems in place are being pushed to their limits, to the point where they result in the opposite of what they are intended to do: in an erasure of reality and an annihilation of sense.

For the present work, Tabrizian invited a group of professional actors and non-actors to execute his scenarios, purposely employing individuals with a disparate range of performing abilities. City, London, depicts a group of businessmen in a bank setting, with the actors and non-actors standing alone spread out in the space. Detached and insulated from their surroundings, the men do not interact with each other, let alone make eye contact. The vacant expressions on the faces transform them into dressed mannequins rather than businessmen; as they seem to forget their ambitions, aspirations and purpose of being in that space.