Korsi
Commonplace when there wasn’t heating in houses in Iran, a coal-heated low-table would be used by families to gather around to stay warm, tell stories and share meals during the winter months, and especially on Yalda – Persian winter solstice. In modern days, this relic of the past holds a nostalgic place in the hearts of Iranians especially of my father’s generation, which is why I created an enlarged version for the all-night arts festival, Nuit Blanche.
artist’s intent
This reimagined rural Iranian pastime premiered with 12 hours of live multicultural music, poetry, storytelling, and dance inspired by the themes of migration, nostalgia, identity and memory.
This installation is exemplary of a common thread in my work: the remediation of cultural intangibles within a modernized transnational and interdisciplinary framework.
My family came to this country as political refugees from Iran, where my father worked as an artist. The government persecuted his work, and his artistic voice was muted through incarceration. My parents then decided to build a better life for their children in Canada. My artworks pay tribute to their journey, to the sacrifices they made for me by offering an ode to their cherished memories of an Iran that once was, and to the Iran that I will never knew.
on the cbc.
the process.
the show.
