As an immigrant, I have always felt as if I am being pulled between two different places at once. In fact, I feel as though I am truly attached to neither. 

D is/ o r ienta ti o n as my first solo installation at the University of Calgary was my first step in exploring the notion of simultaneity in-relation to the places I inhabited. D is/ o r ienta ti o n consisted of 15 abstract drawings of places I walked in from my house to my studio in Calgary on a daily basis. I call these drawings “emotional maps” of my walks.

The drawings were placed on the gallery floor, connected with white chalk lines, which showed a street map of my daily commute to school based on Google maps. In the corner of the gallery, a laptop played a muted Skype video of me and my best friend in Iran chatting, accompanied by the sounds of my footsteps walking from my studio in U of C to my house. One of my goals for this installation was to create a place within a place for my viewers, by combining different layers of materials and conceptual ideas.

~ The Little Gallery, University of Calgary, Winter 2015. Image credits: Nurgul Rodriguez & Marzieh Mosavarzadeh