Sheila Sokhanvari @ New Art Gallery, Walsall

Soheila Sokhanvari is an Iranian-born artist whose multidisciplinary work Heart of Glass weaves layers of political histories with bizarre, humorous and mysterious narratives that are then left to the viewer’s own sensitivity to complete.  She is drawn to traumas that linger in the collective consciousness or cause mass amnesia, and yet resist conventional representation.
Sokhanvari is also interested in the use of metaphor to speak about inexpressible events, particularly with reference to Iran. Magic realism and use of metaphor in autocratic countries has historically permitted writers and artists to allow the meaning to lie between the lines and hence escape the limitations of being pinned down. It is both a gesture of protection and arena for exploration.