Sanaz Sohrabi, Extraction Out of Frame — Stéphanie Hornstein

[Fall 2023]

Sanaz Sohrabi, Scenes of Extraction, 2023, still, essay film / image fixe, film-essai, 43 min, courtesy of / permission de BP p.l.c. and / et artist / artiste

By Stéphanie Hornstein

[Excerpt]

VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine, Montréal
14.01.2023 — 4.03.2023

In an all-new body of work commissioned by VOX, Sanaz Sohrabi traces the imperialist legacy of Britain’s involvement in the exploitation of Iranian oil resources from the first concession, in 1901, to the forced nationalization of the British Petroleum Company fifty years later. To enter this dimly lit gallery space is to stumble upon an archival minefield. From the outset, the viewer is confronted with all manner of photographs, video footage, and scientific graphs culled from the oil industry’s administrative strong-holds. Whereas corporate brochures arranged under Plexiglas speak of a shrill technicolour utopianism, the images of bulky cameras reproduced on the walls remind us that the photographic medium was a crucial accomplice to prospecting efforts in southern Iran…

[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 124 – SEEING THROUGH IMAGES ]
[ Complete article, in digital version, available here: Sanaz Sohrabi, Extraction Out of Frame — Stéphanie Hornstein ]