Katayoun Bahrami
The Weight of the Wall, 2022
Cement Brick, Cotton Yarn 4" x 2" x 8" cement bricks with cotton and metalli crochet cover
The ‘Weight of the Wall’ conceptualizes connecting the present and the past. Containing references of profound cultural and political significance, it includes the suffering of exile and separation, the longing for home, the confinement of the female body, and violence through suppression. The pile of cement bricks, a familiar construction material in Iran, suggests a wall that draws the borders between the inside and outside. But this wall has fallen. It has been defied, creating a sense of crossing from one world to another interchangeably. Heavily-weighted cement bricks with sharp edges shrouded with crochet describe the agony of being a woman in an oppressive society and being exiled from one’s family, and that hope keeps us going. In the process, I developed a sense of weight and suspension. This piece portrays what it feels like to have two worlds overlapping—the current reality and the one I remember via endurance-based processes of feminine gestures.
Katayoun Bahrami
Healing, Resilience and Strength, 2022
Cement Brick, Cotton Yarn 4"x2"x8"
Memories and heritage are symbolized in the bowl I inherited from my grandmother; it is filled with borage, a plant she grew in her garden. The broken pieces of the bowl have been mended using a traditional Iranian technique. Because the cracks on the surface mimic scarring, the repair process is a metaphor for healing and an expression of resilience and strength.
