Naz Shahrokh

Ode to the Emirates (Seeking Nefertiti) is a series of mixed media studies made upon a surface, which originally was a map of the UAE. I believe maps are not just two-dimensional pieces of paper depicting geographies, but are documents that contain untold stories of adventure, promise, memory and hope. Indeed, aesthetically they are also beautiful in their own right. Here, the map acts as the base for reconstructed, reimagined, and dissected narratives where the roads and the journey intertwine. The practicality that the map recalls is at odds with the unattained discoveries of the potential journey held in those roads. Like arteries, the roads bring about isolation in location but lead to new horizons. As the map is deconstructed, the imagery depicted becomes less identifiable to the original surface, and components of it are spread across several works.​​