Bita Behzad

I am afraid of birds, perhaps because birds do not have the same textures as I do. Possibly it is an unconscious reaction to protect myself from the unknown. Nevertheless, there are some similarities between how I treat pigeons and how the world views me. I am an Iranian immigrant who comes from generation after generation of immigrants. As a visual art practitioner, I practice the art of survival through the works that I make. This project is a self-portraiture that does not directly include myself, as a reaction to the current political climate, which diminishes immigrants. In the first part of the book, the subjects are categorized based on their profession in front of a reflective backdrop, holding an air plant as a metaphor for a living object that survives on its own. Through these photographs, I search for the uncertainty that accompanies my future as an Iranian immigrant in the same way that it has affected the lives of these well-established artists. Another part of this project includes photographs of my family members and my late grandparents through the objects that remain from them. Grasping onto pre-considered visual and conceptual elements, I manifest a personality that is more than the preconceptions of me as an Iranian immigrant.