Building the Time Machine
Samar Nezamabad’s Building the Time Machine is rooted in nostalgia, grief, and a longing for the past. More than anything, she wishes she could travel back in time. The past is an inaccessible dimension that eats up our entire lives; everyone we have met, everything we have done, and everywhere we have been. Through her art, Samar wishes to conquer the force of time, even if it is all pretend.
Her process of journeying into the past involves shooting expired rolls of film in areas she associates strongly with the years they expired in, combined with material she has collected from that period. She has visited the years 2020, 2012, and 2003 using this method. Her photography launches herself back in time: back to where she has been and the person she was.
Samar uses her practice to process deeply personal events in her life that she struggles to speak about, choosing to analyse and express her feelings about them through her art instead. The reasoning behind her work is simple: she misses her mom and she would do anything to travel back in time, to before she got sick, and stay there forever. This is as close as she can get.
