Asymmetrical Despondency
Multimedia Installation, Ceramic Vessels and Video, 2018
In this installation, lips tell muted stories, and closed jars muffle the sounds in a symmetrical environment. In the wake of the concurrent immigration issues in the United States and the Middle East, the artist portrays the labors of individual women passing through turmoil: two languages, two countries, two cultures, but the same circumstances for women. The artist recites a poem in her “home” languages, her home of origin, and her adopted home. However, the words can only be heard if the jars’ lids are removed. Does language change the context or the essence of a message? Do words matter if they are not heard, not understood? Can words overcome imposed geographical barriers which alienate nations so the voices that speak humanity are heard?
داستان آوارگی
کلمات در دهان پوسیده اند
تصاویر در چشمان بوی تعفن میدهند
کلمه اول
زن
کلمه دوم
آواره
کلمه بعد از کلمه
آواره
مهاجر
زن آواره
با فرشی بر دوش
سرگردان بین دود و خون
در جستجوی تکه ای زمین برای کاشت گل های قالیش میگردد
کلمه اول
مادر
کلمه دوم
مهاجر
کلمه بعد از کلمه
مادر
مهاجر
مادری مهاجر
در جنوبی ترین مرزهای ترس و هیاهو
در بهت ترس و دلتنگی
صدای کودکش را تخیل میکند
داستان آوارگی من چه خواسته
داستان آوارگی تو چه خواسته
چه ناخواسته
داستان آوارگیست
داستان خانه ای که دیگر نیست
خانه ای که دیگر نیست
کلمه بعد از کلمه
بعد از کلمه
بعد از کلمه
زن
مادر
مهاجر
آواره
راحله فیلسوفی
Poem – The story of vagrancy
Rotten words in mouth
Rancid images in eye
First word woman
Second Vagrant
Word after word
Vagrant
Vagrant
Migrant
Vagrant woman a rug clinging on her shoulders
Astray amid blood and smoke
Seeking a piece of land to grow her rug flower
First word mother
Second migrant
Word after word
Mother
Mother
Migrant
Migrant mother in the southern most boundaries of fear and fury
Dazed by captivity and loss
Imagines her separated child sob
My own story of vagrancy
Albeit arbitrary
Your own story of vagrancy
Arbitrary or compulsory
is story of vagrancy
Story of a house that no longer exists
a house that another grips
Word after word after word after word
Women
Mother
Migrant
Vagrant
Raheleh Filsoofi