Digital Catalogue: 2024 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award
Ali Tahayori
b. 1980 Shiraz Iran, lives Sydney NSW
Untitled 39, from the series Archive of Longing, 2024
UV print on glass, hand-cut glass, silicone on aluminium
Image courtesy of the artist © Ali Tahayori
Artist Statement
The series Archive of Longing is a personal search for glimpses of love and belonging within an inherited family archive, where 'sparks of contingency' often escape the photographer's agenda and the subject's intentions.
The family photographs are cropped, enlarged and printed on glass. They are then broken and reassembled to create sculptural reliefs. Like daguerreotypes, the content visibility shifts as the viewer moves around the image. And, like a broken mirror, the reflective glass returns the viewer's gaze while reflecting on history and memory from a queer, diasporic lens, searching for glimpses of queer intimacy and desire within a violent socio-political context.
About the Artist
Ali Tahayori is an Iranian-Australian artist who lives and works on Gadigal and Dharug lands. His practice ranges from expanded photography to moving image and installation.
Tahayori’s practice sits at the intersection of queer and diasporic subjectivities, exploring notions of home, identity and belonging from a person of SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) region perspective. He works with materials such as glass, mirrors and family archives. Tahayori's practice combines a discourse about diaspora and displacement with an exploration of queerness – in both cases, poignantly testifying to his experience of being othered.
