Day and Night, 2025

I Will Rise in Slow Accession project, 2024-

I reimagine figures from classical Persian paintings as action-figure guardians to reclaim the female agency erased from historical narratives. The action figure becomes a symbolic protagonist, embodying strength, protection, and collective action. Their appearance references medieval Persian paintings, while also evoking American comic book superheroes, blending my cultural influences. I draw my figures faceless with billowing hair, emphasizing expression over identity.

I interpret the flatness in classical Persian painting as a way of emphasizing spatial awareness, where all elements retain their scale and proportion regardless of position. The absence of a vanishing point suggests visual continuity and invites democratic engagement with space and meaning. This democratic gaze is both an aesthetic and ethical gesture for me. I build upon this principle in my scenes, where figures undertake missions to confront various tensions in pursuit of harmony.

The action figures in the Day and Night series inhabit the cycles of day and night, engaging in various aspects of life and labor. The works underscore the tension between aspiration and oppression while celebrating perseverance in the pursuit of one’s mission.

The works combine painting and drawing with digital and analog printing processes, including marbling, silkscreen, and monotype. Once the imagery is printed, I build up the surface with hand-drawn grids, gold leaf, pixel mirrors, and dry pigments.

Research

These are images that inspired my imagination in the creation of this series. Images include Saffron crocus in bloom, being handpicked by Iranian women, and hand-drawn saffron flowers depicted in 17th-century books from the UCS Library archive. The classical Persian manuscript showcases a scene in a garden, where women are gathered separately from men’s activities.