“My practice is grounded in an ongoing negotiation with uncertainty– shaped by migration, cultural inheritance, and the shifting conditions of belonging. Born in Iran and living in the United States, I work with the tension between what is given and what is constructed, where control and unpredictability continuously inform one another.

Across my work, I engage with processes that resist fixed outcomes, allowing instability to become a generative force. This approach reflects a broader inquiry into how meaning is formed– how we impose structure onto what is fluid, and how identity emerges through layers of experience, memory, and displacement.

References to Persian visual culture, particularly the motif of the bent cypress and the idea of the garden, operate as enduring anchors within this shifting terrain. They hold histories of resilience, continuity, and care, while remaining open to transformation. Through this, the work considers how personal and collective narratives are carried, fragmented, and reconfigured over time.”

–Hadieh Afshani