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Payam
Mofidi
‘Of
Our
Unbalanced
Bodies
Without
Organ’
by
Hafiz
(14th
Century)
A
note
on
‘Variations
on
an
Instrument
of a
Human
Anatomy’
Siamak
Delzendeh
Spring
2017
Video
as a
medium
or
what’s
referred
to
as
‘Video
Art’
is
the
product
of
tackling
the
‘concept
of
time’
within
a
pseudo
theoric
thesis,
during
the
past
half
a
century.
The
story
begins
with
the
notion
of
‘human
as a
sculpture’
and
its
main
challenge
is
its
ways
of
presentation
outside
of
the
constraints
of
short
time
limitations
during
which
this
‘post
avant-garde
sculpture’
comes
to
life.
The
post
avant-garde
sculpture
challenges
the
rigid
kind
of
sculpture
of
the
past
through
its
existential
and
temporal
characteristics.
Trace
of
time
gradually
reveals
itself
on
its
pre
solid
and
static
state,
but
as
long
as
it
exists,
it
exists
in
its
given
form
and
state.
Human
as a
sculpture,
on
the
contrary,
leaves
a
trace
of
itself
on
time
and
suddenly
reveals
itself
in
the
eyes
of
the
few,
it
reveals
itself
in
several
forms
and
states,
nevertheless,
others
and
posterity,
in
quest
of
finding
a
trace
of
it
in
history
are
in
need
of
written
and
verbal
narratives
and
witnesses,
or,
in
need
of a
media
as
an
evidence
or a
memory
of
that
short
manifestation
in
time.
On
one
hand,
Video
Art
is
the
documentation
of
the
existence
of
the
post
avant-garde
sculpture
and
on
the
other
hand,
it
denies
the
definition
of
its
relation
to
time.
Video
Art
lays
the
foundation
of
its
own
time
rule
and
its
main
core
connotations
are
formed
based
on
this
very
rule.
In
his
multiple
videos
of
the
project
“Variations
on
an
Instrument
of a
Human
Anatomy”
Payam
Mofidi,
too,
builds
his
time
rule
on
several
levels:
1.
The
project’s
documentary-like
timing
that
squeezes
in
the
stages
of
the
scrambling
installation
of
the
sculpture
on
an
oscillating
pedestal
in
video’s
limited
time;
the
same
method
is
also
used
to
press
longer
performances
in a
shorter
time
span
in
the
main
video
(the
video
in
which
the
white
sculpture
swings
on
an
unbalanced
pedestal).
2.
Recording
and
presenting
the
white
sculpture’s
pendulum
motion
on
an
osculating
pedestal:
the
beginning
of
this
movement
in
high
range
and
then
its
descent
into
a
small
range
until
its
halt
is
Payam
Mofidi’s
main
time
rule
in
this
video.
3.
Another
level
in
the
scope
of
time
in
this
video
is
devoted
to
the
representation
of
the
passage
of
time
and
the
change
of
day
and
night.
The
beginning
and
end
of
the
pendulum
motion
of
the
sculpture
happens
in
an
almost
day
to
night
circle
and
we
feel
it
through
the
sky’s
changing
of
colour
and
movement
of
light
and
shadow
depending
on
the
location
of
the
performance.
This
state
is
better
observed
in
the
installation
and
presentation
of
the
pendulum
motion
of
the
sculpture
near
Montreal
in
an
open
space.
As
the
title
of
the
project
implies,
Mofidi
is
experiencing
variations
of
anatomic
oscillation
of
the
human
symbol
in
different
geographies:
in
Canada’s
Montreal
he
has
oscillated
the
pendulum
of
power
in
an
open
space,
in a
meadow
where
behind
it
railway
line
passes
and
rows
of
tall
trees
identify
the
grasslands.
In
Iran,
in
an
old
cellar
by
the
name
of
‘the
new
cellar’
(a
place
of
religious
pledge
for
childbearing
during
the
Qajar
Period)
in
the
city
of
Saari,
he
has
installed
the
gradually
stopping
oscillating
pedestal
with
the
torso
of a
blindfolded
person
in
official
suit
in
an
authoritarian
state.
What
Payam
Mofidi’s
philosophical
or
geopolitical
readings
are
from
these
two
geographies
depends
on
his
personal
interpretation
and
analysis,
but,
the
understanding
of
the
spatiality
of
the
‘Instrument
of a
Anatomy…’
by
means
of
political
geographical
index
and
by
project’s
emphasis
on
the
uniformity
of
the
pendulum
movement
in
all
locations
conveys
a
clear
message
against
the
notions
of
activist
perceptions
of
power
as a
geopolitical
order.
‘Variations
on
an
Instrument
of a
Human
Anatomy’
effectively
endorses
the
essentialism
of
political
power
and
at
the
same
time
reflects
the
revolt
against
it
as
meaningless.
Also,
the
method
of
making
the
sculpture
through
moulding
(white
resin)
insists
on
the
possibility
of
reproduction
in
different
locations
and
geographies.
However,
the
project
is
still
in
its
infancy
and
is
designed
as
an
open
process
in
order
for
it
to
be
capable
to
be
performed
in
different
locations
on
the
geographical
map.
His
emphasis
on
the
duplicability
is
also
visible
in
his
choice
of
etching
prints
for
presenting
his
drawings
of
the
blindfolded
head
of
the
sculpture.
In
this
series,
the
decapitated
head
of
the
sculpture
on a
horizontal
position
is
been
duplicated
via
handprints
on
various
backgrounds;
urban
landscape,
industrial,
rural,
and
in
different
real
and
imaginary
geographical
context.
The
horizontal
situation
of
the
head
is
reminiscent
of
Linda
Nochlin’s
analysis
on
the
paintings
of
Theodore
Gericault
in
the
book
‘The
Body
in
Pieces’:
‘the
vertical
plane
is
form’s
notion
of
continuity
and
harmony
…while,
horizontal
plane
attributes
to
anti-sublimation
and
conveys
materialism’.
In
fact,
there
exists
sculptures
similar
to
this
project,
usually
installed
on
tall
pillars
and
in
the
cities’
main
squares
in
order
for
them
to
be
the
symbol
of
the
glories
of
power.
Here
however,
not
only
the
sculpture
is
blindfolded
and
lacks
a
clear
identity,
but
standing
stable
vertically
is
also
denied
from
it:
not
only
the
oscillating
base
is
not
giving
it
this
possibility
nor
Mofidi’s
etching
prints
in a
vertical
condition
allow
its
representation
in a
humanistic
and
aesthetic
condition.
He
is
constantly
duplicated
in
an
unbalanced
and
unstable
condition
as a
way
to
mock
‘human
as a
sculpture’
and
also
to
present
‘body
without
organ’
outside
of
the
timing
merits
of
the
medium
of
video
sculpture’ - Joseph Beuys’ next thesis. Since “social sculpture” is a consequence of the harmonic motion of all the organs of society, whilst swinging, it appears to deny linear sequence of time; as a result there exists only one particular sculpture in a while and in every moment– embodiment of each position of the pendulum swinging: the ideal organization is nothing but a body without organ.
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