Wood, felt, board and cloth
5 x 7 x 1-1/2 inches (closed)
بابا آب داد (Baabaa Aaab Daad)- Father Gave Water is an homage to language and tactility inspired by my toddler's wood blocks and my love for the Persian language. This phrase, Baabaa Aab Daad made of wood block modules is translated to "Father Gave Water" which is the first sentence first graders learn in Iran. The reason for this is that it has very basic sound and lettering using the A, B, and D (the first letters in the Persian alphabet which is similar to English being an Indo-European language).
Additionally, I have embedded in this book a small history of a wonderful man who further developed the first grade book and co-founded the nomadic schools in Iran. I decided to entangle him in the book since my research on the phrase "Baabaa Aaab Daad" brought him to the foreground.
Wooden letters of the alphabet, felt, board and cloth
11 x 17 x 2 inches
In an effort to surround my toddler with the Persian language, I set out to create my own modular set. This piece is inspired by my late father’s handwriting.
Wood
120x24x1inches
The two verbs Benshinand and Benshaanand in Samanbouyan, the poem investigated in the presented series here, are compared by weight in this installation. The seesaw is a symbol of play which also becomes the scale emphasizing the comparative angel.
Wood, wax, twine, cloth
This piece is taken out of a photo of my mother and me at a birthday party the year my father left Iran. The shape and the curves of this piece always attract my attention.
30 Benshinand Wooden verbs
30 Benshaanand Wooden verbs
25 x 3 x 1 inches each making up an approximately 15 feet floor installation
3D Resin Print
14 x 9 x 1-1/2 inches
Rubble, blanket
Dimensions variable
Responding to repeated images of rubble in Gaza interwoven with floral blankets, this site-specific installation also references Arundhati Roy’s novel of the same title. Made in the shadow of Iran’s regime’s atrocities against its own citizens, the red blanket takes on added symbolic weight.
Plaster, gauze, paper, magnets
Dimensions variable
Enlargement of a letter written by the artist’s mother to her father
Japanese paper
80 × 60 inches
This sentence reflects on the impossibility embedded in the wish it expresses.
Plaster, metal mesh
30 × 20 × 8 inches
“Aah” is the sound of a sigh in Persian, linking the first letter of the alphabet (aa) to the sound “h,” the second-to-last letter. Constructed from casts of my arms and torso, the script maps the path of a sigh as it moves through the body.
I was born in Virginia to activist parents fighting against the shah of Iran. My family migrated to Iran in the wake of the revolution. Growing up in post-1979 Tehran in the face of seismic geopolitical shifts, I experienced uprooting, disconnection, and ultimately separation from my father. In my art I am compelled to decode the ways in which these events have marked me, creating a personal lexicon of longing.
Forgetting and relearning both English and Persian multiple times has made language a fascinating reference in my work. Persian poetry, as well as biographical text investigating a landscape of longing, have provided a valuable context for examining language formally. These investigations include physically building words and letters with a multitude of materials such as wax, paper, wooden cubes, and concrete. In doing so, I use architecture, book arts, and installation to distort and blur the lines between design, craft, and fine art.
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