Rhea Ardeshir Contractor

Cinema & Media Studies and South Asia Studies major

As an artist, I am fascinated by the sanctity embedded in a photograph to preserve a moment caught from an eye one longer has access to, while yet retaining a narrative in present tense - what could never be forgotten, and what could now never have been a long time ago. Within photographs I find narratives of migration, traces of memory, of grief, and of spaces long lost to me in the material world.

किनारे (ki - na - re)

archival inkjet print

Jewett Gallery

With original roots in the word for shore or bank of a body of water, the Hindi word kinare ( किनारे ) is also used metaphorically to refer to the edge or boundary of any area or space. Working with manipulating and compositing my photographs digitally to conceal their edges allows for a seamless tapestry of images, taken across continents and moments in time, to blend into each other - capturing the blockages and ruptures, lulls and rhythms of spaces as I remember them, seen through the mechanical gaze of the camera. A new narrative is formed, one which is both personal and universal, exploring the essence of what it means to remember and to experience the world around us.

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