“As an Iranian born artist, I am interested in the role that art can play in helping developing countries such as Iran to communicate and connect with the world art cultural and affective levels. Sanctions on Iran by developed nations make Iranian people socially and politically immobilized and disconnected from the rest of the world. Political and economic isolationism can impose fear and constant struggle on the Iranian people and have a wide range of negative consequences. Misperceptions, oppression from local regimes and negative representations from the rest of the world, being forced into exile from one’s homeland, and othering and alienation in other countries are some of the consequences of the sanctions.My goal is to use my art to alleviate cultural misperceptions about Iran as a country that represents alterity, threat, violence, and terror. Through interdisciplinary installations, I try to generate an alternative space that connects contemporary Iranian culture and various aspects of Iranian people's lives to the rest of the world despite/against boundaries. I want to reveal aspects such as aesthetics, history, and vernacular life, which are often excluded from politically charged audiovisual representations of Iran.I believe in the power of cultural referents in connecting people, since history and culture remind us of the links that were once there and have been severed due to various factors. Through my practice, I explore how artworks can reanimate cultural referents such as arch bridges to draw attention to their social lives as objects facilitating cultural exchange.”