Strangely Familiar
A joint project with Bethan HughesPrint Design / Installation Design
Bauhaus Universität Weimar / Marienstrasse 9 / Weimar / DE
2013
(Screen-printed wallpaper, Television with 1 hour looped video,
3 slide projectors, Projection stand, Photocopied exhibition booklet)
3 slide projectors, Projection stand, Photocopied exhibition booklet)
'Strangely Familiar' explores the idea of a contrasting but also shared cultural heritage in both Iran and the UK. Based on a vast collection of pop cultural material gathered by the artists and produced in the years immediately preceding and following 1979, the final installation displays a glut of images, videos and sounds.When viewed together, these conjure a particular series of emotions and connotations, both historical and contemporary, the juxtaposition of media from different cultural backgrounds being simultaneously unsettling yet familiar. The theatrical trope of a foil curtain, witnessable in many of the collection's images and videos, is reproduced on paper, a decorative static hum which provides a backdrop onto which media plays, an endlessly repeating series of slide projections and video clips.
Ultimately, the work aims to examine the surreal phenomenon of witnessing ones cultural background from a geographically and generationally removed position; an inward and outward view onto what is at once understandable, relatable and known but simultaneously incomprehensible, disassociated and unknown.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ab86b84936b59a95e2d35e88584cc2d2b83d002cb12fb7d3a519b23fa28cb507/IMG_0008.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3b917f021bb047e8f60a07526c3eff2f13942cbf00e64f95993cbe92ff59bfa0/Project-description2_1_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24474ff157dc6b8d02e7a039319e2fea1c596d82887ca50090d2504e6236e928/IMG_0011.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78a390ca42dfe606a1aedbdda5cdd03b7fc028f59d8495f7d4790cdaaef6bd3a/IMG_0879.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e0d5b8f62fb8c190809865d15cde2d2bed9ed1c10e8685e7f5e284f3c23a522/IMG_0912.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98a0aab2b9ef454200bc9f5125a12f9095ac724dcf6d6d7d0087de0679808c5d/IMG_0979.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/adb45c5097660ab4f23a497d2443f74dc447be5a07fcea1dedc683ecdb5acd69/IMG_0978-copy.jpg)
Gary Numan, Tubeway Army, 1979
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bfc309b41d0c91389b01050957bd6518ba0f6535e20f9bb785da4c2f85649104/IMG_0983.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/091c8e609fdb985821fc6d59ce15ff64ff4d65a905178db2e2af2d99bc7a9f4a/Untitled-1.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a154ba5a0f3ab7445cfd3765cea3572ca1a88378de0c6a71d8fdf171aa7cffdc/IMG_0927.jpg)
Ruhollah Khomeini,
Iranian Religious Leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution,
in France
Iranian Religious Leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution,
in France
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/309c6fd7bf30e3ba7b5283d2d2be426278b4a76feaafcda017f0e242465f7463/IMG_0881.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8593f6101d6e1f9fd280e0be62b22d5ddc240d686d6bb513576e860a19edae74/IMG_0910-1.jpg)
Farah Pahlavi, The Former Queen of Iran
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0766a046de02de872e60f919cb85eb3465b20281d22e0bc73222827faee04146/IMG_0962.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea9c7490598766417f95025bdea276cfe3906a0469de586ae1895bee49a5a122/IMG_0953-copy.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/091c8e609fdb985821fc6d59ce15ff64ff4d65a905178db2e2af2d99bc7a9f4a/Untitled-1.png)