Textiles are the silent companions that travel with us through life. We are placed into cloth when we are born; it represents identity, belonging, dignity, status, symbolism and ritual. The act of embroidery or to stitch is used to embellish, mend, join or heal wounds.  If we are fortunate, when laid to rest our bodies will again be wrapped in cloth, the garments chosen with care by those that have loved us.

 

From these intimate relationships, the artist crafts her skills, each soft sculpture created over months and years by hand, every shape, stitch and word a deliberate act. 

 

The works become a metaphor for the cross-cultural realities of an identity that is fragmented, displaced. The body reimagined through the psyche.

 

Each piece asks us to consider how it feels to occupy a hybrid space, and confront the Gaze.  The artist reveals stories from her past and present through the female form. She examines her lived experience as an Iranian immigrant in a cultural context that has of late been rather unwelcoming. Persian calligraphy and poetry replace face and flesh. The Farsi texts explore love, nostalgia and intimacy and provide a succour for the soul.

 

The monuments shimmer, tremble and stand strong before us. 

 

Dr Donna Franklin