Where some photos show familiar dusty green carpets and smoke stained curtains, the next presents another type of common American interior – a room stacked with rifles. Nadia’s confronting approach is no better represented than through weaponry; one standout image shows a handsome knife decorated with an American flag grip – cultural history and the implication of violence all in one.
Blending the mundane with the quiet tension of American life, Nadia reinvents her own childhood through character study and a Hollywood movie lens. “I remember the smell of bacon, coffee, or pizza depending on the time of day. Kids would be running around squealing,” says Nadia. “The house was very much alive – there was a coziness to the chaos, and I was at the age where I found any kind of dispute or dysfunctionality exciting.” Nadia’s signature self-inserts feature alongside these carefully imagined scenes, transforming herself into a character that looks like a famous model who got lost in The Buckeye State.
Designed to physically resemble a Bible, Holy Ohio observes the intricacies of America’s rural heartland as well as the quiet temperance of Christian theology that connects the nation. In one image, a sign reads ‘waterbeds ‘n’ stuff’, speaking to the simple kitsch of rural consumer imagery, whilst in another, two men look into the distance whilst a giant dinosaur looms in the background, referencing America as something prehistoric, frozen in time or stuck in the past. Frequently showing photographs of the elderly, with dentures laid on tables and rooms that look like they’ve been preserved at the edge of century, Nadia’s bombastic and glossy style is scraped off here, revealing the true rust of memory and heritage.