RAHELEH FILSOOFI

Born in Iran, lives in the United States, and works in between

My artistic practice is rooted in a rich Middle Eastern history of scholars and explorers such as Ibn Battuta, and Saadi Shiraz. These sojourners traveled and shared the depth of their experiences and observations, noting similarities and differences of each new unknown and unfamiliar area. Their exploration and subsequent narratives enriched their own cultures and fostered the development of critical ideas about identity, humanity, and communality. Such movability has influenced my studio practice philosophy.  In the midst of the world’s political stagnation and extremism associated with immigration policy, border and land disputes I am driven to produce work which challenges current perspectives about politics, society, nature and culture.

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Clay, sound and my body are the nexus from which most of my ideas emanate. They are cryptic, architectural, and the space where the holistic sensory experiences engender new and critical narratives and a world could be imagined where the divisions between places and cultures collapse, then coalesce, to invite to a journey beyond their territorial borders.

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