EMPAC
EMPAC, Troy, New York
We Were Missing A Present
March 29, 2019
This exhibition brings together the work of New York-based artists and filmmakers Bahar Behbahani and Jon Wang as part of Short Shadows, an ongoing moving image series at EMPAC curated by Vic Brooks.
We Were Missing A PresentBy Bahar Behbahani Sound: Maciek Schejbal Text: Ghazal Mosadeq |
| Installation Images |
| The evening was co-organized by second-year students from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, including Giorgia von Albertini, Drew Broderick, Susannah Faber, Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, Serubiri Moses, Suzie Smith, and Thea Spittle, working in collaboration with EMPAC senior curator of time-based visual art Vic Brooks. |
Bahar Behbahani's We Were Missing A Present is a meditative study on the social and topographical transformations of the cultural landscape. By exploring the site of the garden as a place of contest, Behbahani seeks an alternative dynamic between power and control. United by her research-based practice, the various components of this project including moving image, brush strokes, body movement, sound, text, and water are utilized by Behbahani to provoke spatial memory while observing the inherent complexities of material resources. We Were Missing A Present re-imagines the historical structure of landscape, botany, migration, and the processes of colonization. Behbahani expresses sincere gratitude to Imani's family for facilitating the garden visits in Shiraz, Iran, and dedicates We Were Missing a Present to the people of Shiraz in the wake of recent flooding this week.
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