Shahla Etemad-zadeh Jamal

“Nostalgia Museum” is a series vested in a fragmented history, capturing the ancient art of a bygone Iran in a new light and within the bounds of a modern home.

In 2008, I set about collecting images of various Iranian artifacts that had been dispersed through time, and are not too familiar to the Western eye, nor readily accessible to my own countrymen and women. I then projected these images onto the canvas, creating a virtual exhibition by way of the tradition of painting. Each of these paintings reflects dynamic layers of these singular, still, and enduring artifacts.

Through the contemporary presentation of these artifacts, historical objecthood and modern identity fuse into one another, allowing me to redefine our relationship with a more fluid past and present not bound to physical realities.

Through this ongoing project I intend to share these artifacts I cherish, which at the same time is a reconstruction of my own personal relationship with the subjects.