Spring Memorabilia

The series Spring Memorabilia (2020) originates from photographs I took during my visit to Iran for the Iranian new year (Nowruz), spring of 2011. I project these images on my body and other surfaces and then rephotograph them to create a connection between the past and the present. This process of recombination focuses on the elements/images of spring and also calls forth its rituals, cycles of renewal that connect past and present. Images of my childhood street after a spring rain or birds chirping on the walnut tree that my father planted while my mother was pregnant with me are revived on translucent silk fabrics, adopting new texture and life. Memories of our family’s first Nowruz reunion after my sister’s passing, with her son on my father’s shoulder and my mother offering a cherry blossom for him to smell are all cradled in my hands. These yearnings for family and connection have been made even more poignant by the recent and sudden death of my mother in May 2020 in Iran. I was unable to travel to see her or say goodbye due to both COVID-19 and US travel restrictions that continue to place a heavy burden on Iranians living and working in the United States.