Observation

Maker(s)
Artist: Malekeh Nayiny (Iran, born 1955)
Printer: Janvier Laboratoire Photographique Digital
Historical period(s)
1999 (printed 2016)
Medium
Chromogenic print on paper
Dimensions
H x W (small images): 21 × 30 cm (8 1/4 × 11 13/16 in) H x W (central image): 120 × 85 cm (47 1/4 × 33 7/16 in)
Geography
Iran
Credit Line
Purchase -- Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Endowment for Contemporary Iranian Art
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Accession Number
S2016.13.1-19
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Photograph
Type

Photograph

Keywords
father, Iran, mother, portrait
Provenance
Provenance research underway.
Label

Studying abroad during the 1970s and unable to return home to Iran, artist Malekeh Nayiny frequently turned to old family photographs to travel through time and reconnect with the past. Much of her work centers on photography's malleability and its powerful role in evoking a long lost world.


Upon her mother's death in 1993, Nayiny returned home to Iran for the first time in nearly twenty years. While packing her parents' belongings, she found old passports, objects, and her father's cabinet of curiosities. For Observations, she scanned the passports and photographed the various objects. Returning again in 1995 for her father's funeral, she took additional photographs of the mementos, including her father's cherished stethoscope, and later arranged them with the passport photos. Collectively, the collages constitute extended portraits of her parents and trace her key memories of their lives over the years.

Collection Area(s)
Contemporary Art
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