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Katayoon Valamanesh (1990) develops her artistic practice from her experiences as an immigrant. The points of focus in her work shift from project to project, much like the layers of her identity continue to change. One constant is her search for a visual language that conveys the sensation of being moved from one reality to another. To this end, Valamanesh works with plaster objects, experimental video and spatial installations. She deliberately chooses accessible, affordable and readily recognizable materials, allowing her work to resonate directly with the everyday and the vulnerability inherent in experiences of migration.
In I Am Not the Girl, I Am the Horse (2025–2026), fears and nightmares serve as key sources of inspiration. Valamanesh’s nightmares are often highly visual and function as an unconscious driving force behind her imagery. In one such dream, she found herself enclosed in a box: trapped and confined, yet at the same time sheltered and safe. For the work, the artist dipped small horse figures in plaster and placed them inside boxes. The horses, often symbols of freedom, are rendered immobile. They are literally drawn into the work and fixed in place, mirroring how Valamanesh experiences her own identity within the process of immigration: searching for freedom while simultaneously constrained by circumstance.
The installation functions as a metaphor for the tension between the desire for new, unknown experiences and the sense of emptiness that can sometimes emerge on the other side of change. The plaster boxes, with openings that range from small to large, give form to this longing: an uncertain curiosity about what lies ahead.
Written by Kelly-ann van Steveninck