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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?

Filsoofi-Raheleh-A Symmetrical Desponden, Insallation, Pottery, Poetry, Video

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

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