Marjan Khorramgolkaran Opening Reception: Landless

Landless is a body of work that explores the intersection of material and meaning through contemporary mixed-media art, centered on water concept as a metaphor for the fluidity of identity. The project is informed by my personal experience of migration and displacement and examines how identity and a sense of belonging are continuously shaped and transformed through our relationship with place much like water, which is perpetually in motion and flux.

This collection is further shaped by my current life in Buffalo, a city defined by the flow of the Erie River, as well as by memories of growing up near a large lake. These lived experiences intersect with frameworks of psychogeography, place-memory, and displacement, all of which continue to inform and shape my artistic practice.

Nature, in its entirety, is in a constant state of movement and transformation; this dynamic quality weaves together material, time, and lived experience. Water, as one of the fundamental elements of nature, functions not only as a direct metaphor for the fluidity of identity and the condition of being landless, but also as a cosmic substance whose origins extend beyond earthly boundaries. Moving across continents through its natural cycle, water becomes a mirror reflecting my personal experience of geographic displacement.

The series presents various states of water, ranging from stillness to turbulent waves, through two large-scale installations, a drawing, and a stop-motion video. In one of the large-scale installations, I used the cyanotype technique on paper and collaged the prints onto more than one thousand pieces of wood, forming a symbolic reference to Niagara Falls. In the cyanotype process to produce this artwork, glass played a crucial role in transforming the drawing on paper, and because the process itself unfolds in liquid, this work led me to develop a new approach using glass in a subsequent large-scale installation.

Like water, glass exists in a fluid and unstable state through processes such as blowing, casting, and collage. Moreover, both glass and water also possess reflective properties capable of mirroring their surroundings. This shared quality deepens their conceptual connection and invites the viewer into a space of introspection and mental reflection. I therefore chose glass as the primary material and as a direct metaphor for water in the second large-scale installation.

In front of this installation, and at the center of a space scaled to match the size of glass artwork, a small drawing featuring the same pattern will be displayed, emphasizing the original idea and the transformation from the original drawing to the large-scale glass installation.