Shirana Shahbazi, a Zurich-based artist, has work currently featured at the Hammer Museum as part of the artist residency program. As part of the program, artists come to Los Angeles and create work that is about or references Los Angeles.
Shahbazi stayed in Los Angeles for three months last spring with her daughter and husband, capturing the city from behind her lens. The resulting installation is open from now until April 30.
“I loved the stay in L.A. a lot. … It took us a while to learn our ways in this very particular place,” Shahbazi said. “Ever since (I have been) home, I am thinking of good reasons to travel to L.A. again soon.”
Born in Iran and currently working in Switzerland, Shahbazi tends to photograph seemingly ordinary and everyday subjects, sometimes hiring Iranian sign painters to translate her photographs into paintings. A number of the exhibit’s pieces are taken of specimens from the Museum of National History in Los Angeles County and also landscapes of King’s Canyon National Park, located three hours away.
“My work consists of the combination of various stereotypes of the photographic genres: portrait, still life, landscape. My interest is pretty much on the media itself. The photographic surface and how it can be read and interpreted,” Shahbazi said. “I hope that the viewers spend a bit of time with work and think about what they see while enjoying it.”
A number of the photographs are monochromatic due to her interest in seeing how an image can be reduced to a few elements and still retain its meaning. The exhibit is located on the lobby wall of the Hammer.
“She’s interested in photography and in the different genres of photography, and also in reducing images to very basic components and seeing what comes out of that,” said Aimee Chang, director of the artist residency program.
During her recent weeklong stay in Los Angeles, Daily Bruin photographers turned the tables and made Shahbazi the subject of the photo essay found in today’s A&E section.
““ Paige Parker