— Mawra, I noticed you often use animal metaphors when addressing human experiences. Could you talk about that?Mawra:— As a research-based art practitioner, I often work with vulnerable human subjects who wish to remain anonymous due to socio-political reasons. I respect their anonymity through various forms of substitution, such as metaphorical animals and the absence of identified humans. Additionally, hybrid human forms and metaphorical animals help me to convey human vulnerability, fear, trauma, and horrific lived experience in a symbolic, indirect way. The tension between the familiar and the uncanny, the human and the nonhuman, lets me express ideas that might be difficult to portray directly. These animals also reflect on the dehumanization of some human beings.
Over the past two years, I have experimented with representational human figures. But I like to create ambiguity through abstraction to make my work more experiential and open to interpretation.
— Your use of materials also feels connected to that – shadows, absence, negative space. How do materials help or resist what you’re trying to convey?— Mawra:For me, materials shape the narrative as much as the imagery. I often use transparent, translucent, double-sided textured surfaces to produce layered and unstable images that evoke uncertainty and impermanence. In my film,
Displaced, I used drypoint on fully-black inked acetate – it’s subtractive, erasing to reveal, which aligns with my themes of visibility and invisibility. The use of black ink wasn’t intentional at first, but later the audience – especially those familiar with the lived experiences of my subjects – told me that the film’s darkness felt true to reality. That feedback affirmed that the materials carried meaning beyond my own intent.