The Edge of Shadows: Opening Reception

About The Event

Exhibition Dates: May 4 – 26, 2018
Opening Reception: May 4 | 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Artist’s Talk: 7 p.m.

The 2017/2018 Diane Dammeyer Fellowship recipient Anahid Ghorbani presents a culminating work, The Edge of Shadows, exploring issues of oppression, restriction of rights, and the contradictory fears of visibility and invisibility faced by female immigrants and refugees. Ghorbani makes the invisible visible concerning this marginalized group, showcasing the collaborative art she created with participants at Heartland Alliance — both from Muslim as well as other cultures.

Moving beyond being solely an observer, Ghorbani creates metaphors that speak to the heart of the dehumanization refugees and immigrants experience. She uses black as a visual metaphor for the suppression of the individual, using the absence of light as an indicator of the inability of refugees and immigrants to be recognized as human beings, with hopes, dreams, and rights. The subjects are living on the edge of shadows, wanting to move out into the light but fearful and at risk to move from darkness. She invites her audience into layers of meaning by using poetic visual language to create forums for open discussion around these issues, with the goal of shining a light on the very real struggles these women engage with on a daily basis. She invites the viewer to not just understand the outrage, but to also inspire people to begin to think in new, more inclusive ways, inspired to reach across divides that now separate us.

The Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues provides an opportunity for a socially engaged photographer to produce a compelling and dynamic body of work highlighting human rights and social issues. The Fellow shares time between Columbia College Chicago and Heartland Alliance, an international social service organization, and leader in anti-poverty initiatives.

Anahid Ghorbani received her MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2017 and her BA in 2012 from Tehran University of Art in Iran. Engaged with creating site-specific installations that utilize photography and video, her goal is to engage, inform, and invite dialogue around human rights. She has been included in exhibitions at the Tehran University of Art Gallery (2010, 2012), the Caroun Art Gallery, Vancouver (2014), and The Center for Fine Art Photography, Colorado (2017) among others. She is the recipient of the Graduate Merit award, the Albert P. Weisman Award, and the Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues.