A Note on a Ghazaleh Hedayat’s Work

"Snake and Ladder" (2012) is the title of Ghazaleh Hedayat's photo that was presented earlier in the group exhibition "Urban Mapping: Public Spaces Through the Lens of Contemporary"  curated by      Gohar Dashti.

"Snake and Ladder" represents a picture of a rope that continues from the bottom of the frame to the top and beyond it. The rope has been tied into a knot in the middle of its way. A long shot of an urban view is seen in the background that has allocated the upper half to the sky and the lower half to the skyscrapers taller than trees that have gone through the roof.

In this writing, it is tried to separate the "Snake and Ladder" from its context (which is clearly focused on urban and public areas) and to deal with other aspects of it (which would take on mythical dimensions).

In the myths of most nations, the sky and earth have had an eternal relationship with each other. In many of these myths, a single body, semi-masculine, and semi-feminine, strive for unity again after separation. In Mesopotamian mythology, after Tiamat (the primordial goddess, mother of all goddesses) was killed by Marduk, her body was divided into two halves, earth, and sky. In other nations, this pattern has been represented in many ways.

Going back to the artwork and paying attention to the front of the image, we are met with a rope that has made a linear connection from the top to the bottom of the picture. In other words, we have a rope that has connected and tied the sky and earth together. The knot is from the rope itself as if the rope has knotted a single body and an immemorial connection was made between the sky and earth. Here no horizontal line is seen between the sky and earth and the artist has removed the border between these hypothetical spheres with the aid of this knot.

Encountering "Snake and Ladder", beyond its original context, provides a wholesome return to it. But this time, the function of buildings, trees, earth, sky, and rope changes, and other interpretations are valid as well.

Image: Ghazaleh Hedayat | Snake and Ladder | Endgame | 2012 | Inkjet Archive Printing