Zahra Darvishian
The Many Beneath, 2022–2025
The Many Beneath explores the fragmented spaces between memory and becoming; a liminal zone where identity remains fluid, caught between visibility and disappearance, oblivion and reinvention.
Rooted in the myth of the Simorgh (Phoenix) from the Persian epic The Conference of the Birds (a being both one and many) the work traces the birds’ journey through seven valleys, revealing that the Phoenix they seek is themselves. This myth reflects unfinished identity: becoming shaped not by destination, but by resilience, rupture, and reassembly.
Through visual unravelings and porous edges, the work embraces dissonance and survival; a chewing endurance, gnawing through the body, the landscape, and the streets, lingering in silence, absence, and abstraction.
About the Artist
Zahra is a photographer, video and collage artist, and art educator based in Vancouver, Canada. Working primarily with photography and video, her practice explores themes of memory, displacement, and psychological intimacy, often drawing on the quiet tensions of everyday life.
Her work has been exhibited across Canada, Iran, and the US, and has received awards for its visual sensitivity and conceptual strength. In addition to her artistic practice, she has taught photography and editing for several years, developing, and leading courses that emphasize the poetics of light, framing, and personal vision.
She is the author of several poetry collections and has translated key texts such as Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others into Farsi. Her critical essays and reflections have appeared in publications dedicated to art and visual culture.
Her work weaves together visual aesthetics and confessional elements in pursuit of emotional truth and visual nuance.
The Many Beneath, 2022–2025
1 x (17x22) $350
2 x (15x22) $350 each
3 x (14x20) $300 each
2 x (13x15) $250 each