From the series “Shirvan”, 2014
Metallic print on plexiglass
Each 60 x 90 cm
This series examines the variations of locally designed, purpose-made steel roofing widely found in Azerbaijani towns. As an inexpensive and readily available material, steel roofing has gradually become embedded in the visual perception of private residential architecture. Despite its relatively recent introduction, it is now perceived as a distinctive and recognizable feature of the local architectural landscape. Through strategies of multiplication, scaling, and overlay, Mamedova deconstructs and reconfigures the visual motifs of these roof structures, engaging with the notion of constructed tradition – the process by which contemporary forms attain cultural legitimacy through repetition and collective perception. The works enter into dialogue with broader questions of image reproducibility, standardization, and stylistic uniformity, addressing the formation of visual identity within the conditions of contemporary culture.
The utilitarian and often overlooked materiality of steel roofs functions as a conceptual pivot: an element of everyday reality is displaced into the domain of high art. In doing so, the series foregrounds the latent relationships between functionality, aesthetics, and cultural memory embedded within constructed spaces.