The presented series was photographed in Kish; an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf. December of 2021. The immediate subject of “Fade Away” is a land that exists between two states: its function and its failed underlying concept.
Just like most of the mainland, Kish Island infrastructure was built during the Pahlavi era. After the revolution, Islamic Republic found a purpose that was partly based on previous plans, followed by a political/economical expansion that - to put it mildly - made use of resources. At its best days, the island promised a duty-free shopping zone, a tourist destination with tropical weather and a looser morality police. The aim was to create a replica of developing Arab countries at the south of the Persian Gulf to attract Iranians who couldn’t or didn’t want to go to those places.
From hotels to shopping centers and residential complexes, the island expanded as much as it could in a limited time. It didn’t take long for the harsh weather in summer and the humidity of the sea to reveal the flaws of architecture and the low quality of the materials used in the first wave of constructions in Islamic Republic years. In result of surreal inflation and in absence of long-term planning, the structures are slowly being crushed under the cost of their maintenance. The island remains a free trade zone only in name and the merchandise is even more expensive than what is available in most cities in Iran.
But as decay becomes more visible, a new wave of construction takes place. Parallel to the falling economic structure of the country, mega structures began to grow again in an island that is slowly being retaken by nature. At the same time, empty buildings and abandoned construction sites, old and new, are a familiar sight for those who care to walk a little bit further than the tourist attractions. The new plan seems to be selling the disappearing myth of an alternative land. Where Iranians can live with less restrictions and far from the cultural chaos within the layers of Iran’s social structure. When logic fails to describe this landscape, absurdity and Kafkaesque quality of the situation is worthy of an academic study or perhaps a photography project.
As the concept of “order fading into chaos” is at the center of this complex subject, the artist chose to design a project that combines what it shows and how it reveals it. Each piece in the series consists of two or three photographs that picture a scene by a specific layout in a square space. The inconsistency of each work’s shape is the result of connecting the pre-photographing and editing process. This was done to link the subject of the series with an artist's subjective view in a manner that suggests a connection that evolved from the “new topography” tradition.
“Fade Away” is the latest edition of “placement” approach in Alireza Malekian’s body of work. The following is the statement that takes a closer look on what inspires the shape of presentation in the series:
When photographs interact with each other or with any type of visual component in an artwork, a connection is made that carries meaning. It suggests the presence of an extra layer that has value in the way the subject was approached and by an extension, its perception. Series in the “Placement” category explore such an approach by defining the station of each photograph relevant to the other photograph(s) and/or visual object(s) in a single piece. This expands in each series with a specific pattern in order to promote a wider connection among the artworks and therefore, emphasize on the functionality of the structure.
Because of the unconventional qualities of the series that explore the effects of space on presenting artworks, they are more suited to be seen in physical forms rather than in a digital presentation.