Gas Light

Solo Painting Exhibition

Artist: Shiva Zamanfar

The one in control is neither the light, nor the lamp, it is someone who alters the balance of power in his own favor. This light shimmers and glimmers, it sometimes chooses what I can see and what I cannot. I have lost precision and distinction. I don’t trust my eyes. I can’t… I don’t know… I’ve gone mad. I wonder, lost in my room, and I don’t trust anything. In the absence of self, I grow more and more dependent on others and with this bond, I, feel withered and twisted more than ever. I get imprisoned within. There is no certainty but fear. Fears rise up, they become trees and the fruit of fear is fear again and ruin. They smell like moisture. Fear and all damped dryness. And in shimmering light of the gaslight*, I sink within my “unself”.

Life affected by violence** is a lingering lessened experience of death and its patterns repeat and recur in an elusive ambience. Black and white at the extremes and colors in the middle. Hazy images… contraction…wrinkles…bent necks…are biological experiences that shed light on a concealed condition besides expressing an inner quality.

* Gaslight effect is usually imposed on people by selfish ones. They have the ability to persuade others that they are not in the right situation. They live on projective identification of a part of their weakness and fears in others and poisoning their minds. They reduce other’s self-confidence, manipulate their memories and beliefs and in the end, convince them that they have lost their sanity. Implementation of gaslight effect can happen unconsciously. This effect, takes place in families, work places and in social scales.

** Violence is defined by World Health Organization as follows:
“The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.”

[Shiva Zaman far]