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Review of Amir Moshfegh’s Artist in Residence Exhibit - “Essence of the Dunes”
By Bob Killen
Amir Moshfegh decided to become a National Park Service Artist in Residence more than three years ago,
a lofty goal for someone entering the field of art photography. As his exhibit, “Essence of the Dunes” draws
to a close we can say unequivocally that his impressions of the Kelso Dunes are a personal achievement
that brought a new visual voice to the Mojave National Preserve.
The number of photographs of the Kelso Dunes on the web and in postcard-like print images must
number in the many thousands (or more), but the number of images that one can consider as an agent
of meaning are few, too few perhaps. Moshfegh’ s approach to capturing the Dunes as powerful geometric
forms exceed images as primary objects or visual records. In this body of work, we see art photography as
an evocation of feelings, suggested by a mind at work upon objects in visual space and backrolling time.
Amir’s art depicts the ‘Dunes’ beyond form with images that possess their own behavior spontaneity. Far
from producing an inventory of interesting landscape sights and fluffy cloud gestures we have a series of
prints with a socialized relationship. To be abstract is to deal with ideas rather than things, to be free from
representation, art’s age-old purpose. However, with impressionist work, we know the thing or place and
see it anew through the artist’s eye.
For technique, Amir uses
photographic cuts and pieces of
the Kelso Dunes to shape our view
of this national landmark. His skies
in “Two Faces of Blue Hour” (left)
and “Melody” (left) are blank, dark
and suggestive of a vast scale that
is beyond human comprehension.
“The Wave” (right) and “The Float”
(right) have skies loaded with
romantic connotation and celestial
symbolism. Moshfegh seems to
place his highest aspiration in these
images which are concentrated
with soft nocturnal clouds. These
and other images are not allusions,
they are grounded in the ordinary,
and as viewers, we are fascinated
by how delicately and simply this
artist treats the commonplace
sands.
Two Faces Blue Hour
In “The Mirage” and “Drifted”
Amir foregrounds photography’s
key role in the development of
Melody
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THE DESERT LIGHT
| Sept/Oct 2018