False Dawn: Nazanin Noroozi on Creating Emotional and Psychic Space
Nazanin Noroozi in her studio. Image courtesy of Wesley Kingston
Nazanin Noroozi is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New York City, originally from Iran. She combines printmaking, papermaking, bookmaking, photography, and film to create works that defy simple categorizations, inviting viewers to take a slow and considered look—a respite from the usual doomscrolling. Using found imagery such as newsreels, YouTube videos of migrants at sea, and Super 8 clips of family celebrations, she materializes the spiritual and psychic dimensions of migration, displacement, and collective loss that often go unarticulated.
Noroozi is one of six artists featured in the exhibition Ghosts at PS122 Gallery, curated by Francisco Donoso. The exhibition conjures the unseen forces that shape our experience of identity and reality, in order to transcend the surface of everyday life and engage with the fullness of our humanity and histories.
Installation view of four False Dawn works, 22 x 30 in, pigmented linen pulp paint and cheesecloth fabric on handmade paper (cotton & flax). Image courtesy of Francisco Donoso
Francisco Donoso: The works you have on view in Ghosts are from your False Dawn series. Can you talk about how this series emerged and what you’re investigating with it?
Nazanin Noroozi: I’m currently working on a project tentatively called False Dawn (Zodiacal Light), which is based on found footage and media images of stranded migrant boats and the refugee crisis at the Mediterranean shores. This is a project that consists of handmade film with a digital video projection, 35 mm slideshow, and some sculptural artist books for viewers to touch and interact with. I’m trying to salvage these viral images from fast-paced news cycles and give them a second life by juxtaposing them with hand-painted Super 8 family movies and amateur 35 mm slides of American landscapes. These works address notions of displacement and collective memory. I want the viewers to insert themselves into the narrative and find their own stories within the found pictures, or to reanimate these historical narratives from contemporary perspectives.
Detail view of False Dawn 00010, 2024, 22 x 30 in, pigmented linen pulp paint and cheesecloth fabric on handmade paper (cotton). Image courtesy of Francisco Donoso
FD: The intensity of the images and footage used is sometimes not obvious to the viewer at first, but it reveals itself the longer someone engages with the works. Are you thinking about the legibility and/or the opacity of your work in this way?
NN: I often begin with a photo-based image and use alternative photography and printmaking processes to manipulate archival materials. I usually build layers and make drastic changes to the original images, whether through various print/papermaking techniques, painting on top, or collaging. If I do any kind of alternative processes, I treat them more like prints, meaning I’m more interested in the process of printing the work than in capturing the picture. Working with archives and found materials means that almost always. The picture is captured by somebody else, so I like to act like a camera-less photographer. This process of going back and forth with the images—painting on them, building layers, pulp screen-printing, and washing it off—that’s where I create that emotional space. It’s not a straightforward relationship, and the various processes certainly make the work less legible, but that emotional space is crucial to me.
Nazanin Noroozi, False Dawn 0006, 2024. 22 x 30 in, pigmented linen pulp paint and cheesecloth fabric on handmade paper (cotton). Image courtesy of Francisco Donoso
FD: You and I both share a distaste for artworks that live behind glass—what’s your interest in materiality and getting up close to the works?
NN: Tactility and materiality are a big part of my work, even in my filmmaking practice. I literally paint 600 frames by hand to make one minute of my film. So, the brush marks, the scratches, the paper tears, and all the imperfections play an important part in my aesthetics. I also often work on paper (rather than canvas, wood, or other substrates) because it is a material with a lot of memory. You can’t ever truly get rid of a mark that you have made on paper. Even if you erase it or paint over it, the paper will hold a ghost residue. I often feel like once things get framed and go behind glass, they become precious objects and lose their intensity. However, for conservation purposes, it is almost impossible not to frame works on paper eventually, but a lot of times, I like to at least show the works unframed and pinned to the wall so that they can have an immediate impact on the viewers and the space.
Installation view of False Dawn 0007 and 0004, 2024. 22 x 30 in, pigmented linen pulp paint and cheesecloth fabric on handmade paper (cotton & flax). Image courtesy of Francisco Donoso
FD: Do you have special rituals you follow in the studio, or specific habits you’ve developed over time that help you create?
NN: Interesting question! I guess I do, but can I really name and identify them? I’m not sure. I am somehow addicted to my studio. I go there almost every day even if I don’t do anything—which happens a lot frankly! Unlike most people, I usually do not listen to music when I work. I find the emotional impact of music/sound to blur my judgment when I work. I also like to put up sketches, notes, Post-its, and ephemera on my wall and move them around constantly. It’s a wall covered with failed prints, tests, works in progress, notes, and chocolate wrappers. I sit next to it all the time, and my mind is constantly engaged with what’s on it; it’s like a blackboard of ideas but messy and weird.
FD: How would you describe the state of being an artist in NYC right now—given all the turmoil we’re experiencing and watching unfold (election year, Palestine, post-COVID, housing crisis, etc.)?
NN: It’s absolutely taxing, and it’s truly a whirlwind. Sometimes, it feels like the world is going to collapse the very next day. I have lived under crisis-hit circumstances for a big part of my life, so I’d like to believe that I have grown a thicker skin over the years, but witnessing how this country is becoming increasingly polarized is concerning. We see so much frustration and anger every day. I am, however, maybe naively, still a true believer in the power of the creative community and the power of resistance in persistence! So, I’ve decided to remain hopeful!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ghosts was on view at PS122 Gallery from September 7th to September 29th, 2024.
Nazanin Noroozi’s practice is deeply rooted in a quest for universal expressions of loss and longing, often characterized as melancholia, drawing inspiration from concepts like the Portuguese saudade or the Turkish hüzün. Noroozi has exhibited at galleries and museums across the world including SPACES, Cleveland, OH; Athopos, Athens, Greece; Golestani Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany; Immigrant Artist Biennial, NARS, Brooklyn; Noyes Museum of Art, New Jersey; as well as NY Live Arts, School of Visual Arts, and Postcrypt Art Gallery at Columbia University. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from NYFA Fellowship (film and video), Marabeth Cohen-Tyler Print/Paper Fellowship at Dieu Donne, Artistic Freedom Initiative, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and Mass MoCA residency. She is an editor-at-large of Kaarnamaa; A Journal of Art History and Criticism. Noroozi completed her MFA in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute. She lives and works in New York City, NY.
