Performance, glass vessels, rug, water, saffron bulbs in bloom, unfired clay, ceramics, satin quilt, napkin, 11 minutes, 2024

Video excerpt I
Video excerpt II

For this performance, I planted 27 saffron bulbs in the bottom cavity of an unfired clay sculpture made earlier in 2024. Over approximately seven weeks, the bulbs bloomed, and the flowers became integral to the work. The performance commenced with me lifting the blooming sculpture from the ceramic table on the left and holding it in my arms. From its lower cavity, I carefully removed four saffron flowers, placing them at the four cardinal points—North, East, West, and South—on a ceramic sculpture positioned in front of me.

Next, I used glass vessels from my right side to fill the basin at the center of the sculpture in front of me with water. As the basin filled, the water overflowed, cascading over the sculpture onto a pink satin quilt and the rug beneath. Returning the blooming sculpture to my arms, I poured water from the basin over my face, letting it drip onto the sculpture and nourish the saffron flowers in bloom.

The pair of glass vessels, once belonging to my late grandmother, were used in this performance to water various objects, body parts, and organic matter. I acquired the first one during a visit with her several years ago, while the second one made it to me this summer, more than two years after her passing. Together for me, they symbolize absence and presence, life and loss, as well as nurturing and renewal alongside decay and death—reflecting the cycles of life in which we partake as part of nature, especially the one that is deteriorating faster than ever.

The ceramic sculptures, tables and vessels as well as the pink satin quilt are made between 2019 and 2024.