Golnaz Payani

Absence, trace, and perception form the core of Golnaz Payani’s artistic language. She reflects on a childhood shaped by the lingering effects of war, when media broadcasts routinely listed missing persons and those who returned after long captivity. Yet disappearances in Iran extended beyond public knowledge, manifesting in enforced silence that compelled children to keep their lives hidden from view. Private joys—birthdays, weddings, gatherings with friends—were experienced in secrecy, creating a tension between outward appearance and concealed reality. Central to her practice is a meditation on memory and the reliability of traces. Payani asks what remains faithful when reality is displaced, obscured, or overlaid by other possibilities. She does not seek to validate or condemn memory; rather, her work allows traces to assume autonomy, forming self-contained entities with their own identity. Her process isolates objects and moments in time, dissecting them with precision to reveal multiple temporalities. By examining the relationship between an object, its trace, and its trajectory, Payani exposes the mutable interplay between presence, absence, and perception, creating works that invite reflection on the passage of time and the fluidity of experience. ...