Softening Mind

Recent Works by Setare Arashloo

August 24 - September 29, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, Aug. 24th, 6 - 9 pm

Transmitter is privileged to present Softening Mind, a solo exhibition of new works by multi-disciplinary artist Setare Arashloo, curated by co-director Sara Meghdari. The show presents a collection of ink drawings, embroidery, prints on fabric, and ceramic sculptures solely dedicated to Arashloo’s grandmother and her experience living with dementia. The artist delicately depicts her grandmother in her daily routine, reading the newspaper, continually knitting and unraveling thread, struggling to make sense of the present in relation to a dissolving past.

In her work, Arashloo is interested in documenting and archiving personal accounts of historical events, primarily working two dimensionally and on paper. In 2020, she temporarily relocated home, moving back to Tehran from New York City. Upon arrival in her motherland she began working with fabric, an ideal surface for the literal and figurative threads that bind her to the community. She strings memories and the culture of her first homeland, a personal theme that is both parallel and a meeting point for many works.

Returning to New York, in 2023 Arashloo began to work in sculpture. Knitting coils of clay, recreating ceramic fragments of a sweater that her grandmother has been knitting for different people through the last few years. She incorporates needlework, weaving, and natural dye in the print and embroidery works on fabric, a malleable medium, that allows for texture and softness while still maintaining a shape. Arashloo’s grandmother echoes throughout the work. The ink drawings present still intrinsic moments, often accompanied by handwritten notes from their conversations on politics and the news. Trying to remember and struggling to maintain a connection to the present, a reflection of her softening body and mind.

About the artist:

Setare Arashloo (b. 1988, Tehran) graduated with a MFA in Studio Art from Queens College and an Advanced Certificate in Critical Social Practice from Social Practice Queens (SPQ). She has received several grants and fellowships for her individual and collaborative works including SIP fellowship at EFA Robert Blackburn printshop, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Montes Press Writing Grant, AIM fellowship from Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Archie Green Fellowship for Workers Art Coalition from American Folk Art Center. She has worked as a museum and art educator at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Queens College, and Empire State College (SUNY). Her works have been exhibited internationally in the US, Iran, Afghanistan, France, Germany, and Australia, including at Railspur, Seattle (2023), Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arte, Bourges (2019) and the Bronx Museum, NY (2017).