Born in Tehran in Iran, Aida Chehrehgosha spent her childhood surrounded by violence and fear. Both her parents took out their frustrations on their children. It was only as an adult that Chehrehgosha began to understand the harshness of her childhood experiences. This led to the series of photographs To mom, dad and my two brothers.
In Chehrehgosha’s pictures her own parents are shown dead. The precise methodicalness and staging are a part of the process through which the photographer dares herself to face up to the anger that she felt towards her father and mother. The parents lying dead replicate the fantasies of her youth.
Even though depictions of death are an extreme means of dealing with negative emotions, for Chehrehgosha, this also works in the opposite direction. The desire to break away from her parents is combined with the fear of losing them, and with the love for them that is concealed beneath it all. This contradiction generated by extremes of feeling guides Chehrehgosha’s working process,
a process through which she tries to understand her family’s situation.
To mom, dad and my two brothers is Aida Chehrehgosha’s first solo exhibition in Finland.
The Finnish Museum of Photography
Project Space
The Cable Factory, The Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 G, 00180 Helsinki
