It started with a craving. A craving for something I couldn’t have, my past. At first it came in isolated droplets, an old photo tucked into a forgotten book, an unevenly folded letter, a dream. Then it began to leave its mark in my writing and my prints. Going back to Iran after 25 years of absence, turned the droplets into a shower still soaking me.

What is nostalgia? How do you explain feeling nostalgic? An earring, a shade of colour, the fall of a curtain, a badly cut suit, and unfashionable word, the past can show itself in anything. We have an expression in Persian for missing something which translates loosely as “my heart has shrunken for it”. I created this series to stretch my heart. (2006)