Tell me mom, tell me that story again

Found Footage, Sound, Text, Installtion, Perfrmance,

I believe that information is perpetually filtered in every country, and the US is no exception. This installation explores the intersection of multiple wars involving both the United States and my home country, Iran, aiming to obscure the stark reality of war. Using 82 discarded flat-screen TVs, I dismantled them and extracted the reflective, semi-translucent films from inside the TVs to create this structure. The video projected on this installation is a curated edit of found footage from past two decades conflicts in Syria, Yemen, and Palestine, sourced from YouTube.

Four performers positioned behind the structure wave components from the TVs, producing a wobbly sound. This element draws from the tradition of creating sound effects in ancient Roman and Greek theaters, adding a dramatic, theatrical quality to the work and emphasizing the performative nature of news broadcasting with a touch of humor and irony. The subtitled text projected on another wall is a fictional story I wrote, inspired by extensive conversations with my mother about the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988)—a conflict I never witnessed but whose echoes I've deeply felt. This narrative intertwines personal history with broader geopolitical themes, aiming to provoke thought and reflection on how war is presented and perceived.