All That Is Carried

“All That Is Carried” concerns ideas of home, longing, displacement, and memory. My intention is to convey feelings of disorientation and in-betweenness caused by leaving my family home, and home country. This exhibition addresses the complexity of my transitional state between homes. The installation consists of unstretched, shaped, and cut fabrics painted with images of interiors of my former home in Iran. The paintings draw from photographs I took of my former home. A wooden suitcase filled with folded paintings accompanies the hung paintings.

Migration is the most significant change of my life. Visiting my family home in Karaj, Iran, while living in Rome, Italy, was like stepping back in time, but into a timeline that I no longer belonged to. I was a visitor in my parent’s house. Everything that remained behind: my family, friends, most significantly, my feelings of home, was altered. What once felt whole and meaningful was now distant. Yet, the existence of my parent’s house kept these feelings of home prevalent in my life. Despite living in Rome, I carried the unsettling feeling of being tied to a home while also separate from it. This state of suspension had me question what home and belonging mean, especially now that my parents, too, have left that house. This double loss felt like the centre of my world had disappeared, leaving me adrift. “All That Is Carried” remembers and reimagines that house through painting—transforming it into a tangible memory.

Colours have a remarkable ability to leave a lasting impression, with their vividness often persisting long after other details fade. Persian green, also known as Turquoise, is a unifying element in my paintings. This colour holds a rich history in Persian culture. It is a hue frequently found in Persian homes, and was prevalent in my family home, especially on the furniture. Each time I returned for a short visit; I would find new pieces of furniture freshly repainted in that colour by my mother. By using a Persian green palette as the foundation of my work, I aim to capture the essence and atmosphere of my former home, evoking the sensory experiences and emotions tied to that space.

The wooden suitcase is modelled after my carry-on luggage. Through the suitcase piece my home takes on a new tactile and transportable form, experienced by my present self at this moment. It demonstrates my care and attention and that I want the remains of home to be carried with me. Revisiting my once home through this installation allowed me to carry forward the memories and associations of home. I symbolically fold, pack, and carry in my suitcase these belongings—while making mental space for new associations of home, and belongings, that I have yet to discover.

Rozhin Tayaraniyousefabadi

MFA Candidate in Visual Arts