Parastoo Mahmoudi

Unsaying Words

The video piece is a performative drawing to show a silent conversation that can translatedifferently for every audience. Expressive gestural writings using right and left hands representFarsi scripts are written right to left, and western scripts. The world we live in is a complicated placefull of unpredictable circumstances. As Danna Haraway suggests in Staying with the Trouble, wemust contribute to the unexpected situation to create a safe future. The continuous writing,erasing, and mark-making is to perform my contribution and impact the unknown situations togain control.This performative video is my immediate response to unintentional mark-making. The urgencyand immediacy in mark-makings create unknown marks as a result. Learning to contribute tounknowns is a way to understand better unpredictable events and their impacts on past andpresent life.

“My work explores the complexities of memory through mark-making, layering, editing, and excavating language. I was born in a country at war for eight years. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years immersed in a backdrop of violence and political unrest. My wall series is an expression of these complicated fragmented memories and a desire to communicate deep emotions and give voice to this ruptured history. We are born and live to enjoy, love, absorb creation, and learn how to control and navigate our lives. These innate luxuries were never part of my formative experience and have thus framed the way I live and create. Each layer of this multi-layered work signifies a significant moment of life. When the moment is gone, the moment's memory is the only thing that stays forever; constantly reforming and constantly replaceable.”