“For me living in Iran has never guaranteed a state of detachment or indifference to events unfolding rapidly in the rest of the world. Various contradictory narratives, sounds and images seep into my imagination and consciousness. They become entangled with my perception, history and everyday reality. Naturally I can’t help but weave my own set of meanings from what I see around me. I piece together tainted realisations and understandings, imbued with a sense of conspiracy, anxiety and unease, however false or twisted it might be.

The myriad diversity of Iranian perspectives on regional and global events has always bemused and intrigued me. I suppose the greatest challenge that faces my generation is how to reconcile our contemporaneity and modernity with our search for individual and collective truths. If and when we bother to reclaim everything that tends to seduce and manipulate our views, perhaps then a degree of emancipation will be achieved.

I reach out for my truth and autonomy through embroidery and the language of needlework, with sharp needles and endless spools of colourful thread. As I navigate my thoughts through the surface of an image, I find myself deconstructing and re-assembling its subliminal undertones and intentions. Recently I have begun carving metallic household utensils, forming my version of certain collective histories on to their surface. This is my attempt to dig out and save the lost spirit of all that might still be hovering beneath.”