The Nature of Light

About

Azadeh Ghotbi’s latest series, The Nature of Light, explores visual wonderment and delves into emotional sensitivity towards fleeting beauty within Nature, what the Japanese call the concept of “mono no aware”: heightened empathy and appreciation towards transience of one's environment. The work is not about immortalising or defying Nature’s impermanence; instead, it delves into the process of slowing down a fleeting moment in time long enough to reveal and magnify it, to invite others to observe, behold and cherish it.

The Nature of Light photography exhibit examines the alchemy and interplay between light, time, movement and space, and at times, the subject of impermanence and paradox within visual reality. What is tangible vs. perceived, manifest vs. ambiguous, veritable vs. distorted? he resulting imagery confronts the viewers with these questions, challenges their perception while inviting them to interrogate their intuitive visual reliance on fact vs. fiction. The most abstract works remain fully open to investigation and interpretation. Visually, the works in the exhibition engender an interesting and delicate dialogue between digital pixels and what may appear like painterly brushstrokes as if the artist blurs the boundaries of interpretation not just semantically but even between the painterly and photographic medium.