Artist's statement

There are several threads running through my work. The core one is in engaging both myself and others in processes of playful self –reflection,  within public contexts, and seeing what happens.

I’m interested in the poetic within everyday life and in making contemporary use of ancient practices such as gift-giving, moshaereh (communal poetry reciting) and bibliomancy (divining with books) to inspire potentially transformational experiences of exchange and interaction.

In 2004, I became enchanted by the idea of textile, as a metaphor for text and language and this has become a dominant element in my current work. I love cloth and its rich history and associations.

I also experienced the birth of my first child and the death of my mother in the Asian Tsunami in quick succession and this had a major impact on my personal and creative life.

The act of remembering and the sense of longing, embodied through rituals of collecting and wrapping objects and their narratives, have started me on a journey into my new language of sculptural work. My personal studio practice is generating a collection of work which both stems from and feeds into, my work in the public realm
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All of these themes and processes draw heavily on my own mixed cultural heritage, (my mother was Iranian) with a particular influence from our old friends, the poets, such as Rumi and Hafez, who I rely on to provide moments of guidance and inspiration on a regular basis.

Alinah Azadeh (November 2010)