I am an Iranian visual artist based in Lund. Living Archive is a ceramic work from my series Reveal of a Forbidden Body, shaped by my experience of growing up as a woman under an Islamic regime in Iran. There, the female body is constantly censored, controlled, and silenced. This long-term bodily restriction created a deep sense of suppression that has become central to my artistic practice. Through this series, I allow the body to take space, hold an opinion, and speak.

In Living Archive, I turn inward and revisit memories that are both painful and tender. While making the piece, I realized that memory does not only live in the mind, but is also embedded in the body. The body carries a physical archive of lived experiences, shaped by emotion, fear, resistance, and survival. I learned that if I look closely enough, I can see how certain events and feelings change my body and leave visible traces on her.

Ceramic clay is essential to this work. Clay has a memory of its own: it reacts to touch, pressure, and movement, and remembers these actions as it is shaped. This mirrors the way the human body absorbs and carries experience. In Living Archive, my body and the clay body work together, shaping one another into something deeply personal.

Website: https://asiehb.com/