I will meet you there: firstdraft

Ali Tahayori

31 May - 14 Jul 2024

Friday, 31 May 2024  – Sunday, 14 July 2024

firstdraft – Gallery 4

I will meet you there, came to realization by the contribution of over twenty friends, family members, artists, and acquaintances. The project aims to reflect on the notion of “home” from a collective perspective. In 2021, Ali Tahayori made an open call through his social media platforms, seeking potential participants to partake in his  future project, now titled, I will meet you there. He asked each participant to reflect on where/what/when/how “home” is to them and to document the result of their contemplation in the form of images, videos, sound recordings, songs, text and poems. Over almost two years, Tahayori received nearly 100 digital files from over 20 participants. The idea was to create a digital tapestry from the provided content and create an immersive space where the viewer steps into the collective reflections on “home”. The received content varied from images and videos of nature, sky, and ocean to photos of loved ones and family members, childhood memories, favourite foods, and songs to a friend reading his deceased father’s last letter in Arabic. Tahayori says, “From the beginning, I was not concerned about the final aesthetic of the work and to make participation easy and accessible, I asked participants to use their mobile phones to capture their content — the most common tool we document our everyday lives.” The project’s title is drawn from the poem ‘A Great Wagon’ by Rumi, which details the exploration of non-judgment, spirituality, and oneness.

With gratitude and acknowledgment, here is a list of contributors in alphabetical order: Amber, Angie, Bibi, Coryn, Ehsan, Fabio, Firouzeh, Georgina, Hannah, Isabel, Jono, Mohammad, Nasim, Paul, Saghar, Sara, Steve, Steven, Svetlana, and Tarik.

13/17 Riley St, Woolloomooloo NSW