Rosa-Vincenza Lanzalaco

The Suns Last Rays Shaped Us is a photographic and moving image piece that delves into the complex relationship between memory, inherited cultural ideas, and the emotional impact of the past on the present.

Through black and white imagery and personal symbolism, the project prompts viewers to contemplate the ways their own experiences have shaped them. A performance by a Kurdish-Iranian family in a natural landscape visualises our internal self and the cultural, environmental, and social effects we inherit.

The use of the cloth has become a significant prop within my work, as it is used as a visualisation of the internal tensions that play out within our minds. It is used to visualise the push and pull we have with our inner monologues that can sometimes escalate out of our control.

The drum beat in the moving image segment, most commonly known as the “daf” in the Kurdish- Iranian region acts as a cultural pulse that controls the visual element.

The slow pace drum at the beginning symbolises the stillness and loneliness that we are familiar in, but as layers of drums are introduced, its erratic climax starts to unfold and evokes a momentary laps where the moving image becomes out of sync to the beat, and transitions into a frenzy of abstracted landscapes and memories of the absurd.

It becomes the heart beat of life, of the non-linear and the constant fluctuation that is the human condition.

By reimagining aspects of Kurdish culture and domestic space, the project explores commonly shared experiences of life. Through cinematic surrealism, it offers an abstraction of the human condition and a dreamlike interpretation of the hidden memories and influences we harbour within ourselves, enabling viewers to confront and resonate with both their internal and external selves.