US-based Iranian’s cloth works at Art Central reflect complex fabric of her identity
Elnaz Javani says her work can serve as a meditative space for Hongkongers and as a window into rising global geopolitical tensions
A series of artworks featuring six coats with distinctive features created by an Iranian-American artist for the Art Central festival invites Hongkongers to reflect on themes of memory and conflict amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Elnaz Javani, who was born in Iran in 1985 and currently lives in the United States, told the South China Morning Post that the work also serves as a meditative space for Hongkongers at a time of rising global geopolitical tensions.
She said her art also represents her own past struggles with identity.
“My ideas draw from personal memory but transform it into imagined narratives rather than direct documentation,” she said.
“I hope audiences take away a sense of the emotional complexity of lived experience; the ways memory, displacement and personal history are carried through the body, objects and materials.”
Her artwork is currently on display at Art Central, which runs until Sunday at Central Harbourfront.