The Plastic Portrait

“The Plastic portrait” Cologne/ Bologna, 2016-2018 Color Digital print on photography paper 50*75 cm “My frames are like a silent space in which everyone appears through imaginary “object-faces instead of actual face. In fact there is some bounded maybe classified, information about them. They, sometimes, seem like a personal bounded book that should not be revealed for the others”. Houtan Nourian This project aims to make a series of object-face portrait based on daily experiences with ordinary people, mass media and every day issues. Having practiced portrait photography, I have realized my new series in an interdisciplinary way. Sculpture, Ephemeral objects and plastic material are the main areas which should be conveyed in this project. In the other word daily memories and feelings in our contemporary plastic based life full of everyday ephemeral materials, forms, and textures play an important role in the process. To sum up I tried to experiment photography’s ability to present the conversion of the most indexical element of people into reproduced imagined faces. The first idea came to me when I was in Germany. During every typical day I used to travel with Urban train from different points in cologne. It was for me like a kind of daily travel through a small society which is forming every day inside the train; the moveable place in which people are waiting and maybe thinking about their daily tasks and objectives. During those times I was observing people’s faces and eyes as well as their movements and appearances such as outfit, make up, accessories and behavior. But sometimes I felt something so personal and emotional, that I couldn’t talk about that with people who I met in this little society. Sometimes I imagined that this train can be full of people without the actual face; because their interactions with me could happen with some objects too. During those daily short travels, I could perceive that the other can’t get inside of me, as I couldn’t. I was thinking that some places like UBAHN can be with low transferring of emotional data between ordinary people, one could say maybe it shouldn’t. In the second phase I found myself with very countable personal issues and Ideas which couldn’t be expressed to the others. I considered it as a different and second part of my daily life which is just with me. I could feel that many people around me have this feature. Actually I wasn’t alone in this daily society. How could be describe people’s interaction with me during a day in a public place such as metro? And how many data and information is sharing with the ambient? The result somehow was so sadly strange. Because most important ideas and feelings of mine still were there, behind my appearances. In the sense that daily shared information were something that were repeating more times and became like an object which is presenting my identity, character and personage. And this feature of me in my around, was not my already concerns. I mean I was engaging with many of my personal issues which were somewhere inside me. In fact I have imagined myself and the others with an object face which is a series of shared and banal information about the person. Even with any outfit and accessories and completely naked body as reference for the personage. I couldn’t access to those personal ideas and feelings of the people. But I would to point it out.