Farshad Asgarikia
University Assistant Professor, Researcher, Photographer, Filmmaker
Official WebsiteExhibition Statement
This is my father, but he could be the father of any one of us.
Our fathers grow old. They become frail and weak, helpless and dependent, confronting us with the collapse of yet another of our illusions about an endless life. Some of them may even live to be ninety-one, but nothing makes us more aware of our own mortality than the death of a father.
These images are the reality of old age. Reality? Perhaps no word is less real.
Beyond the historical struggle between realism and idealism, what you see here is my interpretation of my father’s reality. And so, in the spirit of skepticism, rather than speaking of reality itself, I speak of a concept of the real: my own statement about my father. For reality, in itself, has little meaning to me.
Every work of art, regardless of school or style, is inevitably shaped by the artist’s point of view.
To label a work “real” or “more real” is therefore merely a way of attracting attention and assigning it a value that is, at its foundation, meaningless. “Reality” has become the source of a great misunderstanding: an attempt to establish some common ground for the perception and presentation of every work of art And this may be the most unreal meaning of all.
Most of these photographs show my elderly father asleep, his body unclothed.
This was not because I wanted to take advantage of his unawareness — ethically, I discussed every aspect of my intentions and the possible consequences with him from beginning to end — nor was nudity used as a means of attracting attention.
I wanted him to be naked, as he was when he came from his mother’s womb. And just as at the beginning of life, in this final stage he spent much of his time asleep.
At birth, he had entered this world from an unknown, dreamlike realm in complete nakedness.
Now, after a lifetime of living, after thousands of cycles of sleep and waking, and after a lifetime of adapting to the necessities of existence, in these final few steps he seemed to be moving in reverse: naked once again, preparing himself for the eternal sleep.
This series represents my coming to terms with this reality…
