Maryam was born two years after the Islamic Revolution and one year subsequent to Iraq’s invasion of Iran. These two pivotal events, the Islamic Revolution and the ensuing war, have constituted the foundation upon which her artistic works and research endeavours have been predicated.
She has recently graduated in visual art, TRANS orientation, from HEAD Genève, Haute école d’art et de design, in 2021. By having a job in digitally retouching photos, she was inspired to start collecting photographs and negatives. Throughout the years, her collection grew to more than 40,000 pieces ranging from the 1940s to the 1980s. Her artistic works are primarily based on this collection of photographs, wherein she investigates the ontology of photographs through printmaking, installations, textile art, and creative writing. Her interests centre on photography, the socio-political conditions of contemporary Iran, rituals, and feminism, with a focus on object-power relations. Her projects are characterized by a research-based approach that may span over several years, with a recurring emphasis on a particular subject matter that evolves into a sequence of works from fine art to socially engaged art.
Her interest in photography was inherited from her father, who demonstrated an unwavering passion for capturing family events and gatherings, always with a camera in hand. It was her father who gave her the first serious gift of a camera, initiating her lifelong connection to the medium. Furthermore, her mother instilled a fresh perspective on the role of photographs by interweaving them with memories and personal stories, elevating their significance to a cherished status, which required careful preservation. As a result, the photographic image and its intrinsic value have permeated her creative works across various contexts.
She looks at history from the perspective of ordinary people in her dissertation “A girl sitting on a chair”. Her focus on “history from below” is reflected in the thesis as it was represented in private photos.