Iman Bahadori

The House Is Black

Faces printed and reprinted from a single stencil, hovering between presence and disappearance.

Category
Monoprint
Year
2025
Medium
Gouache on paper, glass printing
Dimensions
30 × 21 cm

The collection is built upon chance and continuous printing from a stencil in a monoprinting technique, using multiple layers of colour to achieve texture and to convey the progressive and persistent nature of illness.

The initial spark for the series came from encountering the film The House Is Black — a work that approaches human existence, erosion and the subtle beauty within darkness through a poetic lens. The emotional resonance of the film drew me toward exploring faces that hover between presence and disappearance: forms that seem to emerge from time and dissolve back into it.

Every pull takes something away and adds something unasked for. Some sheets hold a whole face; others keep only the pressure of one — colour, a few marks, and the paper.