Pocket Full of Rain

From the perspective of the legendary Iranian Sufi poet Attar Neyshaboori in his masterpiece “Conference of Birds”, self-knowledge and discovering the intrinsic truth of self is prior to understanding the world around you, which he describes as a difficult journey for all human beings.

The “Pocket Full of Rain” influenced by my oriental roots represents my newly transformed identity after my move to the United States in fall 2016. Where I was looking for my role as an artist, mediator, and combiner in confronting two societies and cultures.

It is spatial typography of a modernized “Naksh” (Traditional Arabic-Persian script), hanging in the center of the gallery, the piece conveys the poetry of an Iranian postmodern poet in exile, whose work speaks to the in-between condition. The form of the piece covered by a traditional Iranian craft motif of fragmented mirror decoration and two projectors are projecting two live videos of Shrine of Imam Reza in my hometown in Iran and Manhattan Street in NYC, which are two iconic places in these two countries.

The result is thousands of fragmented images of the projection of the videos on the mirrors and their reflection in the gallery. They are like birds flying between two videos on two opposite sides of the gallery and combining two cultures and societies. In fact, this project wants to illustrate how combining two cultures through the artist leads to the creation of a third cultural space in flow between two main cultures.