‘Life of Tehran and living in Tehran are both paradoxical, because they flow between construction and deconstruction، in a temporary continuity and a continuous disruption. This paradox is more evident when it transcends into Tehran’s established and distinguishable identity. We know everywhere in Tehran with and through its changes. It is not clear if Tehran’s image is scattered or a distinguishable unity.’ These sentences are easy to think of by watching Marzieh Mansourivash’s collection titled ‘Slaughter’, but they actually are of little use; they reveal nothing new. When confronting this collection, we must keep in mind that what we are facing is Painting proper; this can help us focus on their production process and what happens or does not happen in them. What happens is a careful attention paid to following photography. They are not photo-realist paintings: what they have in common with photography is the use of a photographic angle that can convey a real moment in front of a half-constructed building. This can lead us to what does not happen: by slaughtering a photograph taken from some urban area with completed and half-constructed buildings, whatever that is not the centre of attention or represented is brought to the centre of crisis and event. The three elements–represented physical presence in front of the apron of the structures, white contour-lines marking parts of the surrounding and the large blank surface of paper–all convey the the horror of transmission of the illustrated parts to the blank areas. These paintings and their potential for transmission resemble blocks eager to form a wall and can depict a finely conceptualized atmosphere by being placed in an installation tending to go beyond its frame emphasizing the dialectics between inside and outside. This is why seeing them in an exhibition centered on drawing and other exciting subjects–comprehensible from the curator’s statement–is unfortunate and regrettable.