AARZO

These photographs encapsulate the lightness of a fleeing moment, combined with a profound beauty, by revealing the coexistence of this exact duality. A duality carried on throughout this story. Wherever a photograph is taken, the inner world of the taker and the taken collide and thus a story emerges, Marlise’s inner song beautifully merges with that of her subjects, creating a unique duality as a storyline. The juxtaposition that is presented in this work, seamlessly unifying sorrow and hardship, longing and negate, fun and strive and ever continuing, shows us the fragility and similarity of our human essence. It makes the proposition that the building blocks of humanity don’t vary and no matter what the circumstances, one inner light, a reason to burn bright, transcends to another, to all of us. This work suggests, in a delicate and unobtrusive way, a coping mechanism to deal with the rough and destitute conditions of life and work that people are facing, exploring their different ways of mastering the rapids’ current - and the common denominator, creating resilience is connection, with ourselves, our folks our calling or creating – an indestructible, positive outlook on humanity in its purest and simplest form and an ability to see our story in another ones, to hear our common song. Words by Gomma (Laura Estelle Barmwoldt)  Artist statement: "Aarzoo" is an Urdu word meaning wish and longing. This series is about these emotions and their deviations. It is a subjective journey through Pakistan, a country that remains a riddle despite several extended stays since 2010 and the mix of exasperation and tenderness I feel for it. The construction of these diptychs occurred slowly over the years as I began to distinguish the layers of reality, walk my way through the veneer of things, identify the stories and plots, the characters and the overtones and fuse them with the shadows of my own inner theatre. Images started to merge and make sense, a new sense born out of apparent clashes or unexpected semblances. These deconstructed and reconstructed images weave alternative scenes. They suggest stories; they constitute a track game through an often rough but poetic reality. They address the collective narrative through a gaze that covers some tracks and hints at others. Time somehow stands still. Space is saturated with memories and untold tales, walls stare, and people and animals walk by. These pictures have been taken between January 2010 and January 2023.