Having lived in Iran was a pivotal experience for me as a young girl coming of age. A constant element of my work has been the significance of process, repetition and time. The themes explored are the temporary nature of memory, history and personal experiences related to longing and the struggle to find identity and peace.
A significant influence has been the writing of Iranian poets and the experience of reading their work in secrecy. Forugh Farokhzad, Sohrab Sepehri & and Samad Behranghi are the modern iranian writers that have helped to shape my ideas.
In this new body of work The Whirling Series Individual strips of paper have been marked with hand-written and printed Farsi (Persian language) text and drawings. Each strip is then tightly rolled to create a core, around which successive strips are added. During the repetitive process of adding paper strips to create individual rolls, text and symbols are revealed and often hidden within the concentric rings of the finished object.
Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī has a special place in my heart, his poetry and the search for the dervish within is at the core of the nature of my search. Concentric forms of text and material take direct inspiration from the dance of the whirling dervish.
