about
Mahsa Alafar's art practice is rooted in an archaeological thirst for archives, contemporary methods of image-making, and an exploration of the significance of identity and culture. While engaging with various methodologies of decolonizing the Western gaze toward the so-called Orient, she scrutinizes cultural signifiers that perpetuate identity politics and the habits of othering, whether directed toward the Orient or the Occident. She works with found archives, many of which come from her treasure hunts in fading portrait studios back home in Tehran, Iran, where the traditions of constructing a collective identity after major political upheaval were reshaping how a blue-collar, newly religionized nation grappled with its own self-reflexivity.
