Mahtab Grimshaw

Artist Statement 2023


I am a sculpture artist working with clay and resin. I combine the extract of what happened to me and the women of my motherland - from revolution, war, and patriarchy to immigration with clay, antique laces, pearls,gems, stones and found objects to decorate my clay women’s wounded bodies and to celebrate their healing; just as Rumi says: The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

Their feminine curves, cracked skin and the empty space in their surreal figures tell you about their different stories with mutual pains. I call them "the patient dolls", coming from an old Persian tale about everyone needing to have someone with whom they can share secrets, sufferings and sadnesses, to avoid dying of sorrow.

I started creating them when I was first diagnosed with depression and every time one of these girls was born, she tore a part of the black mist inside me and brought it out. So I believe as much as they owe me their being, I owe them mine!

BIO
She was born on an Autumn night in the North of Iran somewhere near Caspian sea just before the Persian Gulf War started.

Graduated with a 1st class (B.A.) degree in Puppetry Theatre from the Division of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, followed by a 1st...

M.A in Drama and litrature
fine art university of Tehran