SHADI YOUSEFIAN

Examination series (2006)

This series, like the previous Universal Identity series, deals with the complexity and fluidity of identity and how it is dynamically constructed, shaped, and continually reshaped through experiences that each individual goes through.  The series consists of sixteen light boxes, showcasing sixteen X-ray-like images. To create each of these “X-rays”, Shadi took pictures of different people, of various nationalities, genders and ages, and cut and glued fragments of different negatives to produce a negative collage which was then printed on transparency.  She made the light boxes using wood panels, plexiglass, and florescent light bulbs. These “X-rays” reflect the composition of one whole person with aspects and attributes of other people. The images play with our assumptions and the ways that we tend to frame an identity without considering the complex and nuanced ways that it is actually formed.  In a way, these “X-rays” symbolize the artists’ close examination (hence the title Examination) of identity as a medical doctor would examine a patient’s X-ray.