“There is No Such Thing as A Big Story” is the result of some years work by me Siamak Filizadeh to break down the grand story of history. This whole challenge started with the underground project and today it is at this point. These details, the narration of history (read it as the past) changes into the present day and cuts through the boundaries of reality and dreams.
All these images, collages, people and places come from my turbulent thoughts. My goal in having this exhibition is to share these chaoticthoughts, and the feeling of being torn apart with the viewers of these images and stories and ask if they are as distraught as I am?
These layers and the synchrony of the stories and happenings in these montages are not myths and dreams, but are the true feel of our present day. The small and trifling stories of this project are so far from me that they are also close. The stories of the Old Testament and the Quran take place in an imaginary city; a city that seems to be the same city and area we live in; maybe even our own Tehran. The oil devourer, the general, the clown all represent my imaginary relationship with the city and society I live in. It seems that in order to exist in this fragmented society I have to show the layers and tears of the society.
You still haven’t told me if you are as distraught as I am.
Everything is in the detail: The texture of the concrete walls, the color of the clothes, the flushed faces, the fears and the celebrations and the thousands of little details that have all been chosen and then one by one have been photographed and have been placed alongside each other to present the tale of the big picture.
“There is No Such Thing as a Big Story”, is the tale of these unimportant, forgotten little details that start with the big picture and become the narrators of little tales that are neither imaginary nor real, neither here nor there.
Siamak Filizadeh
November 2021
150 cm x 260 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
250 cm x 150 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
250 cm x 150 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
300cm x 235 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
250 cm x 150 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
150 cm x 260 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;”
John 11:25 NIV
150 cm x 250 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
«Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.»
John 14:27 NIV
250 x 150 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
“I have the honour to report, that this morning at 4 a.m. oil was struck in the No.1 hole at a depth of 1180 feet.”
George Reynolds’ telegraph to William Knox D’Arcy regarding the discovery of the first oil field in the Middle East, in Masjed Soleyman, Iran, on May 26th, 1908 (Khordad 5th, 1287 Hijri Shamsi)
150 cm x 260 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
And remember We took your covenant and We raised above you (the towering height) of Mount (Sinai): (Saying): “Hold firmly to what We have given you, and hearken (to the Law)”: They said:” We hear, and we disobey:” And they had to drink into their hearts (of the taint) of the calf because of their Faithlessness. Say: “Vile indeed are the behests of your Faith if ye have any faith!”
The Holy Quran 2:93
50 cm x 200 cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
150cm x 250cm Diasec
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
«“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”»
John 12:15 NIV
180 cm x 120 cm Chromaluxe
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
120 cm x 180 cm Chromalux
Archival pigmented inkjet print done at Tehran Image Works
There is No Such Thing as a Big Story (Backstage)
“There is No Such Thing as A Big Story” is the result of some years work by me Siamak Filizadeh to break down the grand story of history. This whole challenge started with the underground project and today it is at this point. These details, the narration of history (read it as the past) changes into the present day and cuts through the boundaries of reality and dreams.