Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
“Exhibition View”
The Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada, April 2025
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
Artist statement
This exhibition brings together a series of paintings, drawings, and a photographic intervention that reflect the ongoing transformation of my artistic practice—from classical academic realism to a more personal and symbolic language of self-representation. While rooted in the formal traditions of European and Persian painting, these works shift away from idealized figuration to engage with vulnerability, fragmentation, and the complexities of identity.
The concept of the “archive” in this exhibition is not limited to history or documentation—it is internal, embodied, and emotional. My self-portraits function as living records of memory, exile, and masculinity, each one layered with references to Iranian mythology, political turmoil, and personal loss. They are shaped by both the nostalgia of a homeland left behind and the reality of navigating new cultural geographies as an immigrant artist. In this mirror—fragmented, poetic, and sometimes distorted—I attempt to see myself more clearly, and to invite others to do the same.
Throughout the exhibition, the figure recurs: sometimes monumental, sometimes vulnerable, caught between action and reflection. Paintings such as Flames of Agency, The Second Skin, and I Dreamed of Bones explore the psychological weight of inherited roles and silenced histories. Others, like Weight of Ashes and Witness, address the quiet residue of trauma and the tension between presence and absence. The recurring motif of the body—masked, mirrored, wounded—becomes a site of negotiation between private memory and collective experience.
This exhibition also includes sketchbooks and a series of seventy small drawings that form an auxiliary archive. These works offer glimpses into my daily process, emotional states, and spontaneous gestures—revealing the raw foundation beneath the finished canvases. They are less about resolution and more about continuity, marking a passage through time, space, and transformation.
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror is a search for coherence amid dislocation. It is a visual testimony to the persistence of selfhood in the face of rupture, and to the possibility of art as both refuge and resistance. Through these works, I ask: How does one carry a homeland within the body? What does it mean to look at oneself through history’s broken mirror?
Sketchbook Drawings; a visual record and creative research
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
“Exhibition View”
The Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada, April 2025
In the corner of the west and north walls, on two pedestals, were two sketchbooks (9” x 12”). The approximately 200 sketchbook drawings, executed in pen and ink, charcoal, pencil, and conte, are a visual record of my creative research. They reveal how raw conceptual ideas, technical explorations, and compositional studies have gradually taken shape, culminating in the final works exhibited. Some drawings are fully realized, expressive works. Others are studies—unfinished, exploratory, or fragmented—tracing the evolution of my thoughts over time. Flipping through the pages, the viewer encounters: gestural studies of my body in motion, quick anatomical observations, and reimaginations of archival photographs, all interspersed with compositional experiments that test different arrangements and perspectives. In some sketches, figures are repeated with slight variations—arms repositioned, gazes shifted, postures altered—as I search for the right balance between expression and form. Others remain abstract, reduced to skeletal structures of movement and weight, where a single, forceful charcoal mark suggests the beginning of an idea.
Sketchbook Drawings; a visual record and creative research
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
“Exhibition View”
The Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada, April 2025
These sketchbooks are more than preparatory exercises; they document my ongoing negotiation between personal narrative and broader cultural themes. In these pages, I see myself as both an observer and a participant in my own story, questioning my role within shifting social and political contexts. Each sketch—whether discarded, reworked, or brought to completion—contributes to a continuous process of self-inquiry, where knowing myself means constantly redrawing the boundaries of my representation. The sketches are also portholes through which viewers can see into my studio process and modes of thinking and feeling.
Sketchbook Drawings; a visual record and creative research
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
“Exhibition View”
The Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada, April 2025
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Sketchbook Drawings; a visual record and creative research
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
“Exhibition View”
The Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada, April 2025
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Flames of Agency. Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
Based on the Iranian myth of Siavash
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Siyâvash (Persian: سیاوش), also spelled Siyâvoš or Siavash (سياووش), is a major figure in the Shahnameh. He is introduced by Ferdowsi as the son of Kay Kāvus, who reigns as Shah in the earliest days of Greater Iran for over a century. His name means “the one with black stallions” after his horse Shabrang Behzād (شبرنگ بهزاد, lit. ’night-coloured purebred’), who accompanies him during a trial of righteousness.
He meets his stepmother Sudabeh, who develops a burning lust for him and begins devising stratagems to lure him into intercourse. However, Siyâvash repeatedly rejects her advances and also strikes down her suggestion to kill his father so that they can rule together. Fearing that he might inform the Shah and have her executed, Sudabeh falsely accuses Siyâvash of raping her. Hearing his plea, the Shah forces him to prove himself by riding through a colossal mountain of fire. Siyâvash overcomes this trial and is ruled innocent. In Iranian literature, Siyâvash is widely regarded as a symbol of innocence. His defense of his own chastity, self-imposed exile, constancy in love for his wife, and ultimate execution at the hands of his adopted hosts have become intertwined with Iranian mythology over the millennia. His name is also linked with the mythical growth of plants.
Siavash. Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
Based on the Iranian myth of Siavash, miniature Persian illustrations
2024
Pen and ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Siyâvash (Persian: سیاوش), also spelled Siyâvoš or Siavash (سياووش), is a major figure in the Shahnameh. He is introduced by Ferdowsi as the son of Kay Kāvus, who reigns as Shah in the earliest days of Greater Iran for over a century. His name means “the one with black stallions” after his horse Shabrang Behzād (شبرنگ بهزاد, lit. ’night-coloured purebred’), who accompanies him during a trial of righteousness.
He meets his stepmother Sudabeh, who develops a burning lust for him and begins devising stratagems to lure him into intercourse. However, Siyâvash repeatedly rejects her advances and also strikes down her suggestion to kill his father so that they can rule together. Fearing that he might inform the Shah and have her executed, Sudabeh falsely accuses Siyâvash of raping her. Hearing his plea, the Shah forces him to prove himself by riding through a colossal mountain of fire. Siyâvash overcomes this trial and is ruled innocent. In Iranian literature, Siyâvash is widely regarded as a symbol of innocence. His defense of his own chastity, self-imposed exile, constancy in love for his wife, and ultimate execution at the hands of his adopted hosts have become intertwined with Iranian mythology over the millennia. His name is also linked with the mythical growth of plants.
Sketchbook Drawings; a visual record and creative research
Self as Archive: Fragments in a Persian Mirror
“Exhibition View”
The Fifth Parallel Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada, April 2025
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2025
Pen and ink on paper
30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2025
pen and ink on paper
30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2025
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Pen and ink on paper
Each: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Pen and ink on paper
Each: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Pen and ink on paper
Each: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
Ink on paper
30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″
Drawing/Sketch, Self as Archive series
2024
pen and ink on paper
Sketchbook size: 30.4 x 22.8 cm / 12″ x 9″