Here are the words I said at the multimedia performance of Deathbed Skiing at the Showroom gallery, along with a few images: Deathbed Skiing Later on my dad stops talking. Gets less responsive. More restless restless restless. I want to freshen him up. Put his arms. Around my neck Sit him. Forward. And He. Tries. to get out of …
Here are the words I said at the performance of Black Run at the Showroom gallery, with a few of the many images: Black Run: This is my DAD. He’s an Expert at LIVING. The Doctors told him his Cancer was TERMINAL. But my dad kept on and on EXPERTLY living, living, living. Then one morning. He. Told me. …
The images for the Black Run story were shown on the metalphoric theatre – one of the Korean ‘machines’ that underpinned ‘Dawn Breaks’ at the Showroom Gallery. I stood alongside telling the story of my dad’s expertise at living. Initially I had my back to the audience – I wanted them to experience the speed of a …
I loved making this My Perspective collage! It shows the Tate Turbine Hall. The assignment was to show perspective, and there’s an orange-line vanishing point vanishing off into the yellow distance, under a white roll-out. The side steps are in orange, and there’s that I-still-dont-know-what-it-is yellow/black/chalk lit-up thing perched high up facing right. But mainly this collage shows the massive …
My Iran-related publications, teaching, conferences and lectures include: Tutor for ISEA Programme at Leighton House: Collecting and Display of Islamic Art. Lecturing on the 1910 Munich exhibition; the 1931 Burlington House exhibition; and Poland as a portal for ‘oriental’ trading in the seventeenth century. Oct-Dec 2014. Air pollution in Iran, British Medical Journal 2014; 348: …
I was a medical student the first time I saw a baby born. I’d been told about all the folding and unfolding and twisting and turning a baby does to get out of its mother. The reality is much more exciting.A tuft of hair emerges and retracts, and then emerges some more, to slowly become the head …
Hejab always seems a big deal for women travelling to Iran. So I thought it might be useful to share what I myself wear. I’ve visited Iran multiple times during the last decade. And can still remember the challenges I faced the first time I went to Iran! So here’s some practical advice for any woman lucky enough to …
Just in case you thought Iranian women weren’t stylish as well as gorgeous, here are some images of high fashion in Tehran. It’s especially hot in elite North Tehran. It used to be that Iranian women wanted Western fashions. Recently, though, there are more and more Iranian designers producing some great Iranian fashion, including Raada: And …
As a foreign woman in Iran, the most common question I’m asked is: “What do you think about hijab?” I can often work out what answer I’m expected to give, simply by looking at whoever is asking. Some obviously pious women, usually without a single strand of hair showing, want to tell me how they have been liberated …
Although a lot of women (and men) despise the hijab in Iran, many like it, and are actively choosing hijab. Some of this is generational — the oldest women may be able to remember the forced unveiling of women by Reza Shah and how shocking that was: some women remained in their homes for months. Others …