MAGHAAK (Abyss)/Ashna Iraj Tavakoli

Haven: Position/Suspended/Ashna Mostafavi

My uncle, Iraj, died in a car accident thirty years before I was born. My father lived for years with the sorrow of that loss, never able to truly accept what had happened. When he was fifty- nine, I was born; he named his only son Iraj, in memory of his brother.

In my early youth, I realized that my father believed I was his late brother. His fading memory had taken him back to a past he had always longed for. I had unintentionally slipped into the role of an actor whose character I barely knew. All of us, at least twice in life, stand before a mirror and encounter our independent selves: once in childhood, and once more when we inhabit a role that forces us to re-examine the coordinates of our being.

My encounter with the figure of my uncle is an encounter with history itself; he carries memories within our family’s collective memory - memories whose echoes continue to shape our lives, forming together the fabric of our personal history. Everyone has at least one person they have lost in a way that defies belief - losses that, once they occur, make us painfully aware of the power of presence: that very moment when you imagine the person has risen from the photograph’s frame and taken their usual seat again - near, alive.

The collection before you is my mental reconstruction of Iraj’s lifetime and the shadow his presence has cast over my life after his death. Maghaak is the rift between forgetting and remembering - an abyss so dark that even light cannot pass through, yet it remains our only hope for recalling and recognizing: recognizing Iraj, the forgotten memory of my family, and its relationship with the future.

Through the Maghaak project, I have attempted to uncover a hidden chapter of my family’s history - a mysterious absence that reveals the intricate bond between past, present, and future; a history whose tendency toward disappearance makes its preservation difficult, and a human being who prefers not to remember tragedy.