Award-winning Iranian Canadian visual artist Soheila Esfahani explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and cultural transformation.
Using Persian script as a starting point, the calligraphy gradually becomes abstract. These works reflect the experience of living between cultures, where meaning is shaped and reshaped. They serve as a visual and emotional map of Esfahani’s own journey.
This exhibit is Soheila Esfahani’s response to the following verses by Rumi: I’m weary of beast and devil, a man is my desire. They said, “It is not to be found, we too have searched.” He answered, “What is not to be found is my desire.”
These works are a record of Esfahani’s search; a map of her quest for “what cannot be found.”
Soheila Esfahani is an award-winning Iranian Canadian visual artist. Her work has been exhibited at the Aga Khan Museum, Canadian Cultural Centre Paris, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Cambridge Art Galleries among others. She is an Assistant Professor at Western University in London, Ontario and is a member of the Red Head Gallery in Toronto.
This display, in the Glass Case Gallery, at the front entrance of the Central Library, is on display from September 1 to November 16.
