Between two worlds

This project tries to capture that invisible pain and baggage we carry as immigrants while trying to live a normal life and function in our new homes and how hard it is to communicate that.

The project was born in a dark time when my home country of Iran was caught in yet another unnecessary war for 12 days with Israel. As an Iranian immigrant, I often found myself caught in a pain and trauma carried within me while on the surface I’m living a settled life in my recent home of 10 years in Australia.

This project tries to capture that invisible pain and baggage we carry as immigrants while trying to live a normal life and function in our new homes, and how hard it is to communicate that.

I am currently working on it as an ongoing project: The main aesthetic element is using a video projector to reflect the inner thoughts and worries of the main character, a young Iranian immigrant woman, depicting her in everyday life situations in her new country, but inside caught up with concerning or even horrifying thoughts about her loved ones in her home country of Iran.

The project will have complementary elements in the form of short stories written by my friend Zanna Taheri, who herself is one of the models in the series, along with her sister as the main character, and often her husband and their child. We are planning to use these short stories as accompanying pieces in exhibition shows and also publish them together as a book and/ or a zine as a photo-story project.

Example of a short story accompanying the 'Christmas tree image':

Dara says, “Look, Mummy! There we are in the window glass. Our tree looks so nice!”

I look at our reflection in the glass, the two of us decorating the Christmas tree together. Bright baubles, shiny stars, Santa pictures, reindeer, gingerbread men, and cute little elves…

Dara smiled and asks, “What do you want Santa to bring you this year?”

I asked, “How’s Dara? Does he know what’s going on?” Two days later she replied, “Sorry for the late reply, love. The internet was down. Dara’s fine. He doesn’t know what’s happening outside. I told him Auntie Zara taught me a new game and we have to cover all the windows with tape and pull the curtains tight. We call it the ‘inside-hide-and-seek’ game.”

He loved it and got really excited but now he’s bored and keeps asking, “When does this game end?” I told him, “Whenever Auntie Zara says” now auntie Zara, when does this game end?”

— A magic bag.

Dara gets excited and says, “What do you want to put in your bag?”

When I chose the name Dara and told Maede, she was so happy. She said, “Now we have two Dara. One on this side of the world, and one on the other side.”

She said she wishes every Dara, everywhere could play as much as they want and stay happy.

— People’s wishes. I want to give them their wishes as gifts.

I asked, “Don’t the explosions scare him?”

A few hours later she replied, “This VPN keeps disconnecting, I don’t know why. It just came back on. Of course they scare him. Every time I make up an excuse. Once I say it’s someone’s birthday. Another time I say it’s a wedding. Another time I say it’s a celebration. I’m running out of reasons, Zara. What new excuse do you have?”