Leila Pazooki

Leila Pazooki’s photographs from her series Pixel Diary initially strike the viewer as massive and expansive. When examined close up, the over-size pixels, of which the pictures are composed, allow the observer to recognise simply large areas of colour and to have no more than a faint idea of the situations that lie behind the photographs. It is only when seen from a distance that her works take on a familiar form and reveal the full extent of their content: namely, fire, demonstrations and smoke. And where is this happening? It could be anywhere and everywhere, at any location where people are demonstrating or fighting. However, despite the fact the images have been edited, defamiliarised and parts cut out, it is the context that releases in the observer’s mind a chain of associations and leads one to conclude it must be about the Green Revolution of 2009 in Iran. And this is indeed the right conclusion. The context moves rapidly via Iranian artist-fire-smoke-green-media-crowds to massive protests against electoral fraud in the re-election campaigns of the Iranian president and demands for a democratic society. For her series of photographs, the artist used media images, which she subsequently distorted digitally and, in the process, created her own kind of censorship.

Leila Pazooki was born in Iran in 1977. After her studies in Tehran and Munich she moved to Berlin where she lives and works today. She has had solo exhibitions in Dubai, Mexico City and Tehran and she contributed to group shows in Berlin, London, New York and Guanghzou among others.