Life’s moments, be them good or bad, will always remain irreversible. Yet perhaps the most fundamental difference is the distinct way we experience them at their instants of happening. When feeling pain and sadness, we are aware of how difficult and intolerable it is, but the moments of pleasure will only gain a meaningful effect once a considerable amount of time has been passed, reinforcing them as memories. While it is always pleasant to remember those moments, it is inevitable to regret not having understood their sweetness as they were happening, making their recollection stained with desolation, and although we are aware of their unrepeatable nature, we do not refrain from laboriously retrieving them once again.
The current series of work has a very similar quality and a comparable sense of exploration.
While the practice of sculpting often involves reducing material from a larger whole, in the work of Paridokht Moshkzad, the pieces have been the result of a long-sustained toil of shaping metal nets —like the ancient art of sculpting a piece of jade, which was both an artistic endeavor and a meditative process aimed at healing one’s spirit. Metal nets are often used as reinforcements in sculptures, but here they are both the purpose and the tool, and ultimately, they seek to recreate the warm and intimate world of childhood, using a cold and masculine material like metal pieces in a female process like weaving and sewing.
As Paridokht Moshkzad states, what has been created in this series of work has been born out of her own personal life, feelings and experiences —from recalling the joyful days of childhood and her encounter with its memories. All of her pieces are based on her perspective and approach about childhood as a period full of happiness and freedom. As so, she has created child figures. Of course, there are numerous other concerns and issues that the viewer encounters while visiting this exhibition, even ideas beyond what the artist has put on view.
The long process of creating these pieces that have been the result of fencing off vacuum and nothingness using multiple metal layers, resembles the difficult process of remembering and retrieving memories —the burden of moments that would never return, the toil of contemplating moments that would never come back…