Lot 341: SAMIRA ALIKHANZADEH

UNTITLED
signed, dated 87 (A.P.) and 2009 and numbered 2/3

100 by 150cm.; 39 3/8 by 59in.

acrylic and mirror fragments on printed board

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Alikhanzadeh's early paintings depicted windows and frames that looked out onto a different place. Stumbling upon a box of old photographs, she decided to incorporate intimate portraits of anonymous women and children into her project. Inserting imprints of these images into her frames, her mixed-media works of paint, photographic impressions and mirrors invited bystanders to enter into the realm of mysterious persons whose faces had been misted over by time. Nothing is known of the identity of her melancholy and remote sitters except for what can be deduced from their clothes and their pose, a hint perhaps at the era in which the photographs may have been taken and a suggestion of the lives they may have led. Further obscuring the identity of these faces is the want of narrative. The viewer is left wondering as to who these women and children may have been and what secrets they may have had to divulge; one's curiosity is aroused as to why the artist has chosen to portray these specific characters and pass on the memory of their existence.

But the questions that surround the identity of these subjects and the impossibility of arriving at a final answer to them are very much central to Alikhanzadeh's undertaking. Samira Alikhanzadeh's anonyms sit on, silent, incapable of speech. Were they to utter a word, however, they would surely talk of what the artist has employed them tod o: to bring the viewer face to face with that which is known for certain ? that someday they too will be of the past and that they too will become voiceless unknowns. The lingering presence of these women and children thus poses questions about the mercilessness of time that cannot be stopped, about life and the inevitability of its end, and about the transience of our identity in the grand scheme of things.

Ironically, the mirror strip that covers the eyes of some of her sitters and conceals who they are from view is precisely the element that draws the onlooker to closelyinteract with the work and to relate to the state of her subjects. It is this addition that literally allows the viewer to be transported into the world of the sitter and to see himself in the image of those before him. As we walk by, stop to look, and walk away again, we are reminded by Alikhanzadeh's works of our fleeting presence and of the fact that we too will disappear one day.

Untitled is the depiction of twin sisters in their school uniform, gazing at the viewer solemnly with their mouths closed, heads touching. Their facial expression is almost adult-like, if it wasn't for the rosy cheeks and the big white ribbons. Paradoxically, it is the lack of "eye-contact" between Alikhanzadeh's sitters and her viewers, blocked by a mirror strip over the former's eyes, that creates a deep connection between the two as the viewer physically sees himself in the subject's place.