Time and Time Again: An Interview with Farah Salem
An interview for Sixty Inches From Center
April 2022
“Ever since I spent a winter afternoon in Farah Salem’s studio, the two of us falling deep into conversation, the words of poet Nayyirah Waheed have been whispering in my mind: “Complexity is just simplicity which refuses to be anything else.”
Farah is the kind of transdisciplinary artist whose practice folds in and unfolds out of itself, endlessly and inevitably, as she uses her art and art therapy practices to honor, challenge, and reimagine rituals and psychologies across generations and geographies. If you don’t take the time to fall in, then you’re missing out on a chance to join her in a voyage between worlds. You’re missing an opportunity to expand your understanding of how art moves through our bodies and art’s ability to be a vehicle for ancestral knowledge and the human psyche.
What began as a practice rooted in design and photography has now become something intuitive and precisely untamed. Farah follows her instincts, which has led to her ability to take the tools she’s been given or acquired and use them to create expansive and provoking works through seemingly simple gestures. This can be seen in works like Erode Re-Compose, a series of Polaroid assemblages that, at a glance, look like colorful, collaged landscapes but are, in fact, photographic visualizations of the psychological impacts and distorting effects of trauma on memory. As someone who spends time thinking about memory (re)composition and its relationship to truth and speculative nonfiction, I find form for these ideas within Farah’s work.
The following is a glimpse into parts of hours we spent together discussing her artist origin story, the basis of her artistic ethos, and how the recurring theme of time as material has shown up in her work over the years.”
Photo Credits:
[1] Artist Farah Salem stands in her former studio at Hyde Park Art Center with art works, fabrics, garments, and photographs hang on the wall near a shelf and table holding various materials and artworks in-progress. Farah is wearing white pants, a black top and vibrantly colorful scarf draped across her shoulders. She’s looking off to the side, smiling, with her hands gestured in front of her. Photo by EdVetté Wilson Jones.
[2] A portrait of Farah Salem sitting in her studio wearing white pants and a vibrant scarf draped over a black turtleneck top. Part of a wood panel with Polaroids from the ‘Erode Re-Compose’ hanging in the background, with other polaroids directly on the wall. Partial views of images from the series Temporary Deformations. Photo by EdVetté Wilson Jones.
[3] With dyed fingertips and a small grip-shaped sculpture being softly clutched, Farah’s hand stretches into the frame from the left. Just beyond her hand you can see more small bright copper-colored sculptures from the series sitting on a table. Photo by EdVetté Wilson Jones.
[4] Farah Salem can be seen from mid-face down, holding a headpiece instrument that’s covered in cowry shells. You can see her vibrant scarf draped over a black turtleneck top. Part of a wood panel with Polaroids from the ‘Erode Re-Compose’ hanging in the background. Photo by EdVetté Wilson Jones.
