STATEMENT OF WORK

I examine the intersection of mental health trials like addiction and a fragmented family system, using objects & mythopoeia to fill gaps in memory & create tangible ‘anti-monuments' of stories lost to time. My inquiry into my heritage– of  Iranian and Cherokee descent, revealed complex gaps in my family's history – spaces shaped by language barriers, assimilation, migration, mental health, and war. These absences, not unlike the gaps in my memory, have given rise to compelling family oral histories.

Inspired by these stories, I craft objects and performances that act as vessels for these histories. I think of the sculptures as anti-monuments or (un)monuments that reimagine what artifacts or actions might have existed or may come to exist within these almost true spaces while commemorating life rather than death. My work often uses metal, Persian flatbread (sangak), and performance, symbolically filling the liminal spaces with tangible objects and intangible actions.

The layering and assemblage in my work reflect the diverse nature of my history, where objects reference Iranian folklore and have become talismans (un)monumetizing stories that would be lost to time, utilizing speculative fiction and its influence on our personal and social narratives.  According to Michel Serres, the monument is a fetishized death object. By seeking the anti-monument, I am fetishizing life by creating artifacts that define the negative space in stories resonant in semi-fictional oral histories.