Illusions No.1, 2009. Sound, 00:58

Bahar Samadi’s Illusions is a nightmare reconstructed from damaged film rushes. Seemingly disjointed images — a black dog, blindfolded figure, meat grinder — flash on and off, not long enough to make sense in a narrative sequence, only to invade the eye of the unconscious. Film is the medium of this dreamscape, with videoborder repeatedly superimposed on the deteriorating footage as if it were a safety tape, guarding entry and capturing your gaze within. Dreams contract time and expand sensations, as De Quincey remarks in his Confessions of an Opium Eater, “very brief outer shock — a whole scene lodges in it.”