Bāygān: House of Photographs and Words
Photo
Pouya Parsamagham
Untitled from the series Blind Spot
2016-2023

Text

Sara Yektapour

 The Sign of the Red Flower

Does the signifier conceal or reveal? Does it define, or does it dominate?

The only source of light illuminating the flowers is the neon sign on the shop window. One can see their various forms/shapes/faces, although under the sign of the word “flower” [گل], it’s as if their true color has been completely erased/wiped away and uniformly turns to red.
The nature of the unity of the flowers behind the window is that something must be lost, polished/sanded down enough until it can ultimately align. Perhaps this is the essence of being reduced under one element, and that’s why sometimes I hate words. There are things that fall into the cracks of words; no matter what you say, you don’t reach them, and you get frustrated by not being able to convey them. Sometimes you resort to multiple equivalents for a single word to experience a small touch of that meaning, but there are always blind spots that never become words; just like the strange feeling of this picture.