“Swollen Objects”

In this installation by Shahriar Rezaei, we witness plumb bobs that have lost their past and transformed into “aimless objects,” reappearing in a new form in the present moment. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben describes this process as the “melancholization of objects”; past artifacts can only reach today through their cynical nature. Though they originate from the past, they are emptied of their pastness, so they invade and inflate the present. This “swollen time” exposes unique moments of the present for the experience, which Agamben calls the “contemporary present.”

— Mohammad Parvizi