The Ascension Series is a body of wooden sculptures that explores flight as a spiritual and political journey. Born in Tehran during the final years of the Iran–Iraq war, I draw on memories of sirens, air raids, and post-war propaganda murals glorifying fallen heroes. These works revisit that atmosphere, tracing how the presence of war lingers long after the bombs stop.

The series is rooted in the Farsi verb salaka—“to follow, to travel”—and the Sufi idea of the sālik, the seeker on a spiritual path (sulūk). In these sculptures, flight is both literal and metaphorical: it recalls warplanes over Iran while also pointing to inner movement, migration, and contemporary tensions between Iran and the United States.

Carved from wood, a material central to Iranian musical instruments, the sculptures transform the cold metal of airplanes into something warm, tactile, and resonant. This shift from war material to organic form becomes a metaphor for turning violence and fear into reflection and art. Ascension is therefore both personal and political—a meditation on memory, conflict, and the possibility of transformation through making.