Shirin Towfiq

Shirin Towfiq (b. Oceanside, CA) is a conceptual artist of Iranian descent who works in textile, photography, installation, performance, and socially engaged art.

Her work addresses cultural, communicative, and interpersonal relationships. She received a BA in art practice from UC Berkeley and is receiving her MFA from Stanford University. Drawing from her experience as a second-generation immigrant, Towfiq recontextualizes commonly held ideas surrounding family, memory, comfort, and self-constructed identity.

shirintowfiq.com • @shirintowfiq

 

Shirin Towfiq’s practice addresses intergenerational trauma and archives her family’s forced migration from Iran through sculptures, textiles, and performances. She recovers fragmented memories like lint on a roller to create a future hybridized identity drawing from the past. Scanning and enlarging this lint to invent her own magic carpets, she weaves the abstract vulnerabilities of bodies in migration. Semi-transparent digital textile rugs ripple across the wall to embody freedom and movement.

Terry Berlier, Associate Professor, Art Practice