Produced over a period of four years, A Temporary Discomfort deals with the idea of a once familiar place becoming unfamiliar and the emotions that are triggered when the place once called home is not recognizable as such anymore after spending a significant amount of time abroad.
Sensory overload, disorientation, resistance, confusion, flawed memories, frustration, withdrawal, resentment, boredom, restlessness, alienation, need for excessive sleep. These are symptoms typically associated with reverse culture shock, a phenomenon experienced when returning to one’s home culture after growing accustomed to a new one. This series deals with the idea of the familiar becoming unfamiliar and that maybe your hometown is not what you once recognized it to be, after spending a significant amount of time in another place. Imagine, you are in the city of your birth, where you grew up and spent most of your life – though everything feels different – the static, mental and emotional snapshot of home has been replaced by an alternate reality.
A Temporary Discomfort engages with this idealized version of reality, where unrealistic expectations and unexpected confrontations are all common experiences.
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Claudi Nir is a German-born photographer, currently living and working in Ireland.
She recently graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) in Photography from the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
She has recently been chosen as finalist in the Propeller 2012 Award with a selection of her work from A Temporary Discomfort. The work is currently exhibited at The Copper House Gallery, Dublin (June 13th – 22nd 2012).
To see more of her work, please visit
→ www.claudinir.com
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