SARA FARDHESARI

The process of erosion of cultures is the topic that runs through the last three years of my artistic practice. Cultures appear, penetrate people’s lives, and eventually vanish due to globalization, ethnic and armed conflicts or migration. With the vanishing of cultures, some people are displaced from the world they knew as their familiar surroundings.
Although over 164 definitions have been given for culture in 19521, I would like to add my voice to emphasize its crucial role in my life. To me, culture is the sum of characteristics through which I can represent my identity; they allow me to feel a sense of belonging to something greater than myself and to communicate. I define the world around me through my culture. In order for me to survive, my culture has to present itself vividly. My illustrations are the way to keep my culture dynamic. In other words culture is a beautiful way of communication.

To me, everything is transparent – I see multiple layers of time and experience simultaneously; every wall of every house has a magnificent story to tell. I have tried to fabricate an assemblage of time going by. Parts of the installation are real, some are reconstructed, some are nostalgic and some are just the way I desire them to be.
Minutes turn into hours and days turn into years between those open doors and antique rugs. Places once known as home, filled with love and laughter, have been turned into desperate ruins, encouraging nothing but distant memories. My illustrations are an attempt to redefine physical objects as the representatives of an abstract sense of time.

I have tried to capture time within space in order to make my way through the fear of it passing by. I have tried to narrate stories behind concrete walls and iron windows and I have opened closed doors and echoed the sounds that have faded away in time.

1:Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. Kroeber, A. L., and Kluckhohn, Clyde. Vintage Books, NYC, 1952