The Thermal Body Signature of a Second Class Citizen, Choking on His Own Saliva
Video-Performance, 2021.
A Video-Performance I developed and finished using thermal camera during my art residency at Mac Dowell Art Residency, NH, U.S to be shown at my solo exhibition at Soo Visual Art Center
The importance of this equipment in my work comes from its wide range of application in military and surveillance, drones and border patrolling. Many Kurds in crossing the borders of Iran-Iraq at night are targeted and killed using such technology.
The Following is Andy Sturdevant’s review of this piece:
“In The Thermal Body Signature of a Second Class Citizen, Choking on His Own Saliva, Pedram does just that. Pedram is able to force his saliva down his windpipe in a way that’s terrifyingly unfaked, and here he attempts to cough it back up, globule by globule, under the watchful eye of an infrared camera. You can see his body heating up, stress radiating off of him as he convulses. So much of the work here is about how the body can be suspended in physical space, between two places, not at home in either. This is the second class citizenship Pedram alludes to in the title -- not quite Iranian, not quite American. As he hacks away, the National Anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran plays, Pedram’s physiological unease making a mockery of the lyrics’ promise:
Your message, O Imam, of independence, freedom, is imprinted on our souls.
He sounds instead like his soul is trying to leave his body. The anthem cross-fades into a bad-trip version of the Star Spangled-Banner, playing more and more slowly. Pedram tries to drink a glass of water, but it offers no relief. His convulsions mock those lyrics, too, the anthem’s noble-minded paeans to gallantry and gleaming -- there’s nothing gallant or gleaming here. He’s watched, studied and under surveillance by at least two states, choking on his own essence. The anthems are different, but his choked, anxious response is the same.”