Exercises: 1-7, 2023. Unframed measure: 33 X 48 cm.
Photographer: Bjarke Johansen
Exercises grew out of a long-standing fascination with hula hoops often associated with childhood, play, and leisure. I am drawn to the circle because it refuses hierarchy. Unlike the straight line, it has no beginning and no end. It loops back into itself, carrying movement, memory, and return within its structure. A symbol of cyclical time, of planetary movement, of biological rhythms, and of the recurring patterns that shape our lives. In many contemporary societies, progress is imagined as something linear: always moving forward, always producing results. The circular form proposes another possibility. Sometimes understanding comes not from moving ahead but from returning. Not from acceleration but from repetition.
The photographs occupy a space between performance, sculpture, and image. They freeze movement while simultaneously suggesting continuation. In that tension between movement and stillness, the work reflects upon how we experience time through our bodies.
Text by Sayeh Kazemi
