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<p> Aither includes the inter-relatedness of human and non-human beings as well as of matter and non-matter. </p><p> My art practice reinforces the position that aither, or the space between and around three-dimensional works has an experiential energy and a force that supports and enlivens the work.</p>

<p> With an overwhelming concern for functionality, the design world and industrial production have moved far beyond the pure necessity of the handmade object. With the paper coffee cup, disposable utility is the primary goal; afterwards the service is performed and the thing is discarded. On the other hand, the clay object can be used and reused allowing a personal relationship to form between the user and the object, the maker and the user. My work is meant to reconnect us with the haptic; the tacit knowledge of the physical. I want the user to think of a place beyond the gallery; I want my sculpture to bring greater awareness to the constructed world around us. I am focused on discussing the functional aspects of mundane or ordinary things and investigating the importance of objects, as they exist within popular culture and the domestic sphere, by constructing tableaus from <i>component-based</i> objects fabricated from ceramic.</p>

<p> Using collage and other material processes, I transform the iconic image into a more complex reading. By appropriating found images within a specific urban area, my work exposes particular histories of class discrepancy. Filtered through my personal experiences, narratives are formed using signifiers like flags, pidgin languages, and professional sports. Pictorially, I use the grid to reference the layout of the dense urban environment. This formal structure is capable of hosting a range of disparate images and mediums. My exhibition <i>Private Signals</i> refers to the development of personal relationships that are formed through the manipulation of public images.</p>

<p> Kaitlin, my 20-year-old sister, was diagnosed with Rett syndrome when she was 8 years old. Rett Syndrome is a neurological developmental disorder that affects one's ability to use their hands and language and eventually leads to developmental regression. The best way to describe the syndrome is to imagine that a little girl has cerebral palsy, autism, anxiety, Parkinson's and epilepsy. </p><p> In this body of work I am thinking about my sister and the people closest to her, who take care of her, who love and are loved by Kaitlin: my Mother, myself, and my fianc&eacute;. I am trying to understand Kaitlin's view of the world, the world's view of her and, by extension, how she is perceived through this series of photographs. In making these pictures, I am addressing the nature of relationships, consciousness, normalcy, and the role of treasured objects in one's life. In the collages, I use the books that Kaitlin has torn and chewed. In these I am experimenting with the idea that she and I can collaborate in the art making process.</p>

<p> Being able to live together with another species in a way that is mutually beneficial is magical. Animals can have distinctive personalities and are often irreplaceable to the people who love them. They can be so genuinely loving and at times silly but then can instantly shift into being demanding and emotional. The interactions that people have with animals have universal consistencies but at the same time are very personal and individual relationships.</p><p> The artwork in my thesis exhibition, <i>Please Don't Touch the Bunnies, </i> explores traditional and non-traditional death rituals as well as the relationships people have with their pets. Mourning and peoples' respect for the dead are very important themes in my work. When my pet rabbits Alice, Osiris, and Flea died I experienced feelings of pain and sadness that are common for a person who has lost a loved one and decided to commemorate them with my art.</p>

<p> I am a woman who was born and raised in Iran, a country that has undergone seismic changes throughout its history, from political to cultural ones, all of which have affected peoples&rsquo; ideologies for thousands of years. Like my peers, I have numerous personal concerns to explore in my work. I seek to represent the stark contrast between tradition and modernity in Iranian culture, which has leaked into different aspects of my life. Early on, this was the chief question that led me to develop a photography project while I was about to leave my home country. At that time my journey started based on this first series of work that I made. </p><p> After moving to the United States in 2013, I started to shape my ideas around my personal concerns over the cultural shock I had faced. Moving to a new nation and facing new people who think, act, behave, and talk differently altogether have all made me feel like a stranger. At that time I started to concentrate on issues revolving around the oppression of women throughout history by portraying my ideas through photos of human figures that later transformed into symbolic objects. At that phase, aesthetics of organic forms of Persian handwriting brought meanings into my abstraction. I employed poetry as a representation of the culture in which I belong. I dedicated my concentration to various layers of connotation through which form and content had a chance to shape and convey a cohesive reference. </p><p> Following my first year of graduate school I made a trip back to Iran during the summer of 2014. It dawned on me that the memories of my past versus the days of my present had generated a duality that transformed into an identity issue. This realization made me aware that I was becoming a totally different person while studying abroad. This transition led me to move from representing my inner feelings, and develop my language toward redefining my perception of time and space. This phase of my work was a m&eacute;lange of photo and text presenting memory, culture, and history, and it formed the work in the thesis exhibition.</p>

A collection of poems by Ryan Bonner.

My thesis questions our construction of identity through objects. In small sculptures and paintings with collage and various found materials, I insist on the touch and intimacy that our bodies afford us in the world saturated with surface content, screens, and digital profiles. My criticism is self-reflective and curious, an attempt based in research and process in hopes of understanding further the complexities of absorbing in a body and dressing a surface. I have been focused on the formative years of growing up with objects and tools that shaped a concept of individual self and how the imposition of the “ideal” feminine surface affected my understanding of love, intimacy and sexuality.

Here is an exploration of the intergenerational Southern Black American Body, a complex collection of persevering souls of the past, present, and faith-driven future. Through the sensorial physical encounters of my body, sometimes recalled through the physicality of another, I locate the labor to belong, the complexity of submission, sensual awakening, displacement, absence, and the expansive spiritual force of the collective body. Using documentary additions of archived family photos and journal entries, I expand and abstract the occurrence of my presence through non-linear time, connecting the personal to the complex communal. These documents are the slippery prophecies of my being, our being, that simultaneously cause, effect, and become the present-day poetic text. This work complicates desires to essentialize and understand black presence—embracing the process of becoming, seeping, seeking.