In this project my goal is to create a new sorts of presence. Due to the difficulties in obtaining a visa, I could not join the rest of the group in Hong Kong. I then decided that the next best thing would be to have traces of my life go in my stead. Therefore, I gave my sabzeh, as well as my childhood shoes (carried from Iran to Zurich) to one of the students, who then performed and documented with photographs two separate projects of mine in Hong Kong. The first of these projects involved my childhood shoes being photographed in different situations all over Hong Kong. The shoes act as a placeholder for my physical body. The photographs taken of them try and show the possibility of an impossibility, namely the concept of being without presence. I suggest an in-between space, not real, not ideal, but possible. With this work, I hope that the shoes can create a personal experience, even without being there in person. Furthermore, they are also the symbol of an imagined, fluid space, ebbing between the real and the surreal. My shoes visualize what these stories are unlocks a further aspect of my work, which has the rich tapestry of our human journey at its core.
