My studio practices uses visual art as a vehicle for cultural transition between Persian aesthetics and western contemporary art. My main goal is to use art as a tool to raise awareness, convey and stimulate emotions, to translate matters and events into a universal language. I tailor my use of mediums and materials to best suit the subject matter. I try to invite my audience to explore the events more personally than they otherwise might on a newscast. I mainly focus on how traditional and political value system shape Iranian gender politics: however, during the times that a specific event or social matter affects my people, as an artist who has access to the universal language of art, I consider myself responsible for taking action and bringing awareness.
The Unbound
Thread on canvas, wooden chair, approx. 5' x 4' (canvas) + standard chair size, 2024
The Unbound is a personal installation that explores the tension between cultural identity and personal expression. As an Iranian art student who came to Canada to pursue my studies, I was often encouraged to leave behind my background and adopt Western artistic traditions. But I found strength in the words of Parviz Tanavoli, whose experiences reminded me that staying rooted in my cultural narrative is not a limitation. Even when this narrative doesn’t align with dominant norms, it remains central to how I create and exist.This work emerges from that in-between space where nothing fully fits, yet everything still belongs. The central canvas is strung with 1,006 meters of black thread, the abjad numerical value of a line by Hafez: “هوایِ منزل یار، آب زندگانیِ ماست” “The air of the beloved’s abode is the water of our life.” But the calligraphy on the canvas does not form complete words. The shapes are letterforms, familiar, but fragmented, like echoes of a language I carry within me but cannot fully speak here. They resemble Farsi, but resist easy reading, mirroring how I sometimes feel understood only halfway in both cultural contexts. The installation was created entirely in Canada, with local materials and space. In front of the canvas sits my own paint-stained studio chair, marked by my labour and presence. Threads extend toward it, but do not bind it. This reflects my position: not exiled, not assimilated, but tethered in a way that is chosen and conscious. The Unbound is not about resolution, it’s about tension. It is an artwork shaped by fragments, misalignments, and translation. In that fractured space, I continue to create meaning.
