Flyways

Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani’s exhibition Flyways (a reference to the migratory patterns of birds) represents the latest iteration of Soleimani's ongoing Ghostwriter series, in which she continues to explore her parents’ experiences of political exile and migration as a lens to examine broader systems of geopolitics. Soleimani creates detailed compositions in the studio that combine photographs, props, live animals, and even her own parents, resulting in surreal, magical realist scenes.

The artist's most recent works include imagery evocative of her family’s history alongside photographs of injured birds from her care work as a wildlife rehabilitator. As an extension of her art practice, Soleimani founded the non-profit Congress of the Birds, a wild bird rehabilitation center in Rhode Island. The sheer range of Soleimani's practice—her choice of imagery, subject matter, and method—informs a visual language that is surprising, inventive, imaginative, and contemporary. Soleimani’s exhibition in the Institute for the Humanities Gallery will feature a newly curated selection of photographs from the Ghostwriter series, along with a new site-specific wall drawing created as part of the project.