Communal Art

Áshená, Bear Witness to Me, 2021

In collaboration with Asha Kiani and the Second Generation Collective, 2021, 25:00, 9-channel installation with sound. This artwork was supported by Dream Plan Do 20', Lotterywest, YCulture Propel Youth Arts, City of Fremantle and Community Arts Network. Exhibition at Carriageworks (2021), PS (2021), Denmark Art Festival (2022) and University of Western Australia, School of Design (2022).

This artwork is the practice-led outcome of Masters of Fine Arts research, University of Western Australia, Thesis title, EMPATHY IN FILM, POETRY AND ART: IDENTITY BUILDING IN FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION IRANIAN-AUSTRALIAN AND BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY (2022).

The research explores aesthetic devices such as film-poems, open image and moving painting to evoke empathy in the viewer, focusing on the case study of the Bahá'í community and the emotional impacts of displacement following the 1979 Revolution. The thesis seeks to uncover how the concept of home is ever evolving, and urges a reconsideration of roots, reformation, and hybridization of identity. The second generation immigrant, acts as a 'bridge' between the first generation refugees and the host country. Through a collaborative practise, Áshena, Bear Witness to Me invites the viewer to reflect on their own position within these inquiries.

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