Paperwork

Format: Performance
Venue: Court Square Studios, Long Island City Arts Festival and Grace Exhibition Space
Series: Images of Interpretation, curated by Leili Huzaibah
Materials: 10 x 10 ft paper, video projection
Year: 2015 and 2016

Paperwork is the performative embodiment of the artist's journey as an immigrant, exploring the inseparable politics of family, career, immigration, and exile. Since arriving in the US, the artist has been defined, or more precisely confined, by their immigration status, carrying vague classifications: F-1 student on a single entry visa, O-1 Alien with Extraordinary Abilities, Resident Alien, Pending Status, and so on.

In Paperwork, the artist constructs a personal narrative of a morphing home, a glimpse into an interwoven past, and a future still in the making. A 10 by 10 foot piece of paper is folded while a video projects onto its surface, footage recorded from every corner of their home the night before leaving Iran, their parents' recordings of the home after the artist and their sisters left, and footage of the whole family together in the 1990s. The performance ends when the artist enters the cube formed by the folded paper.