Artist: Katayoun Bahrami
Title: The Weight of The Wall
Attribution: The Weight of The Wall,
Year: 2022
Materials: Crochet forty 4"x2"x8" cement bricks with cotton and metallic yarn, Dried Borage
Dimensions: Vary
Image Statement: The ‘Weight of the Wall’ conceptualizes connecting the present and the past. Containing references of profound cultural and political significance, it includes the suffering of exile and separation, the longing for home, the confinement of the female body, and violence through suppression. The pile of cement bricks suggests a wall that draws the borders between the inside and outside. But this wall has fallen. It has been defined as creating a sense of interchangeably crossing from one world to another. Heavily weighted cement bricks with sharp edges shrouded with crochet describe the agony of being a woman in an oppressive society and being exiled from one’s family, and that hope keeps us going. In the process, I developed a sense of weight and suspension. This piece portrays what it feels like to have two worlds overlapping—the current reality and the one I remember via endurance-based processes of feminine gestures.