Exhibit and Art Talk: The OmniGripper

EXHIBITION & ARTIST TALK
The OmniGripper
Friday, August 29th | 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Alieh Rezaei has created four fiber-based panels depicting the emergence of bodies and organs from the chest of a mountain. These works are inspired by four monumental tombs carved high into a cliff face in her native Iran. Her research centers on Naqsh-e Rostam, a necropolis northwest of Persepolis, where rock-cut tombs honoring Achaemenid kings (circa 550–330 BCE) embody both historical preservation and political narrative. Reinterpreting these carved facades through a personal lens, she engages the body as a site of memory and transformation. At the heart of this project is an investigation of materiality: she associates the woolen texture of rock with a Quranic verse that describes mountains turning into carded wool on the Day of Judgment–an image etched into her memory since childhood. This symbolic connection becomes a framework for confronting and resisting recurring cycles of pressure, as she continuously reshapes carded wool, reclaiming the repetitive act of needle-felting as a gesture of endurance and transformation.

The art talk will be followed by a short Q&A and reception.