Kimia Khedri

What do you do when a field is burning before you, and all you have is a bowl of water?

Over the past year, I travelled to Iran to meet spell writers, listening to their stories and asking why people seek them out. I wasn't looking to know whether these rituals work, but the desire behind them: the human need to hold on to something when faced with uncertainty, to believe that something can still be changed or protected.

Something to Hold On brings together moving image, painting, text, and scent. Landscapes, fragments of personal memory, and traces of collective history exist alongside one another. The installation reflects on the ways we hold onto places, memories, and beliefs while there are circumstances beyond our control.

Neither the spells nor the works can bring back a dead person to life or restore a place to what it once was. They are already failed dreams. The act of reaching for something despite knowing it cannot undo what has already been lost.