Women Potters in Iran
Raheleh Filsoofi
Pottery is a tradition in Iran dating back thousands of years. During field trips to her native Iran, ceramic artist Raheleh Filsoofi has focused on women potters living in villages in western and northern Iran. She brings to the conference a slide show and talk that describe the lives and creative work of women producing pottery of both practical use and sculptural appeal. While clay holds the memory of ancient cultural traditions, it also serves as a liberating force in contemporary Iranian society.
Filsoofi, Raheleh
Raheleh received her MFA in Ceramics from Florida Atlantic University in 2014. Her work is steeped in cultural memory and displacement with regard to her native Iran and the way in which people construct identity through sight and sound. Her art extends to a variety of media. Through the use of sound, music, physical objects and video, she narrates stories of individual and collective experiences of displacement. She also does field research documenting traditional and contemporary ceramic art in Iran with particular focus on the current role of women in that field. Her work has been exhibited in Iran and the U.S.