Hootan Heydari
Exploring notions of home and memory, Hootan Heydari melds personal and political histories that often centre on the moment of 1979 when his family fled Iran following the Islamic revolution. Working predominately in sculpture and photography, his work distils echoes of the past into the now with richness and ache.
Biographically loaded objects with poetic potencies, such as family photographs and cassette tapes, are at times repetitively stacked and frozen in stillness in custom-made cabinets. Plaster is frequently used as a strong yet fragile material to both coat and cast, associated with building homes and healing broken bones. Farsi text often features – an Iranian refrain that breaks down linear time. Threading through Hootan’s practice is futility, compulsion and repetition: hallmarks of the act of making and the act of remembering.
Hootan (Born 1970 in Tehran) holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), RMIT University, Melbourne, (2019). He is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Arts by Research at the Victorian College of Arts, at the University of Melbourne. Select solo exhibitions include The Past is Present, FUTURES, Melbourne, 2023; Yeki Bood Yeki Nabood II, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, 2022; Select group exhibitions include To Resound, Unbound, Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP), Melbourne, 2023.
