Two crows stand facing one another against a backdrop of floral lace fabric, each carrying fragments of “Dokhtalook” dolls on its body. The two panels of the work place two narratives face to face—two memories, two generations, or two parts of a single identity, silently engaged in dialogue.
Rooted in the culture and lives of women in southern Iran, the Dokhtalook dolls become part of the crows’ bodies in this work, as though the birds are carrying stories that have travelled from the past into the present. For me, the crow here is both memory and messenger—a creature moving between earth and sky, carrying stories from one place and time to another.
The floral fabric, evoking the intimacy of home and memory, brings past and present together through its relationship with the crows and the dolls. Stories that may never have been told remain alive; they rest upon the bodies within the image and have taken flight.