Alieh Rezaei has created four fiber-based panels depicting the emergence of bodies and organs from the chest of a mountain. These works are inspired by four monumental tombs carved high into a cliff face in her native Iran. Her research centers on Naqsh-e Rostam, a necropolis northwest of Persepolis, where rock-cut tombs honoring Achaemenid kings (circa 550–330 BCE) embody both historical preservation and political narrative. Reinterpreting these carved facades through a personal lens, she engages the body as a site of memory and transformation. At the heart of this project is an investigation of materiality: she associates the woolen texture of rock with a Quranic verse that describes mountains turning into carded wool on the Day of Judgment--an image etched into her memory since childhood. This symbolic connection becomes a framework for confronting and resisting recurring cycles of pressure, as she continuously reshapes carded wool, reclaiming the repetitive act of needle-felting as a gesture of endurance and transformation.
The art talk will be followed by a short Q&A moderated by Marcia Franklin and reception.
BIOGRAPHY
Alieh Rezaei is an Iranian-born, San Francisco Bay Area–based interdisciplinary artist, working across fiber, drawing, and performance, focusing on the theme of the body and self-authorship. Her work navigates how the material and performative languages of traditional fiber, particularly Iranian felting, can be recontextualized within contemporary frameworks to reflect on cultural and corporeal fluidity. Through fiber art, she challenges systems of power imposed on her body and identity, reclaiming voice, agency, and space by transforming domestic materials into sites of narrative and resistance. Her MFA in Intermedia+Digital Art from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) deepened her engagement with time-based media and experimental storytelling, building upon her prior studies in animation and digital arts in Iran. Alieh’s work has been exhibited at Maryland Art Place, Rochester Art Center (NY), ItsLiquid Group (London), Contemporary Art Modern Project (Miami), ICA Baltimore.
Alieh Rezaei will also have a workshop in Felting Techniques on Saturday, August 23rd. Register at
http://surelsplace.ludus.com
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