Sara Pakdel-Cherry
Sara Pakdel-Cherry is an Iranian-Scottish multimedia artist and activist, and a graduate of Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. These textile hangings are designed to highlight her Persian heritage and the political plight of women in Iran under an Islamic regime.
Siah 1 and 2, 2022
Printed textile
Sara Pakdel-Cherry: I guess if I wasn’t Iranian, I don’t know what I would make art by, or would I even make art? The Dual Identity comes out in everything I do, even I would say in my own practice. It’s one of those things where you’re just working in a simple part time job and the customer asks, ‘Where are you from?’ and then you’re like, do you mean ethnicity-wise, or do you mean the area of Glasgow? ‘Oh well both’. I know, you want to know where my skin colour is from, that’s your actual real question. Sometimes it’s a compliment, sometimes there are reactions like ‘Oh, ok. Well, what are you doing here?’ And you’re like, well, I was raised here. ‘Ah, ok, ok, ok. Yeah, what brought you to sunny Scotland then?’ And you’re like, man, I am one of you. I am proud of who I am, but it introduced itself before I introduce myself. Before I come forward with my own identity and the person I am and say who I am, they already know who I am from their assumption of me, from the way I look.
Biography
Sara Pakdel-Cherry is a graduate of Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanston College of Art and Design. An Iranian-Scottish multimedia artist and activist, Pakdel-Cherry explores the consolidation of the Islamic regime after the 1979 revolution while enhancing knowledge of her Persian heritage. Her art practice is based on her experiences as a Persian woman with hopes of educating the public of these issues. Meanwhile, illuminating the powerful feminine heritage of ancient Persia for the women of all generations in Iran.
“Identity is kind of like Russian Roulette at birth.
Personally, I was born as a Muslim Iranian national. Three years later my parents became immigrants and therefore asylum seekers in the UK. Years later my family became British citizens, granting us with Dual Identity. However, as a woman of colour, the word Dual Identity has negative connotations for me, this often can be the case for many people. If you are of colour and have Dual Identity you have most likely felt, faced, and dealt with racism. Dual Identity can at times be oppressive.
I am Sara Pakdel-Cherry, a multimedia artist with a practice based on women’s rights in Iran. I am a woman whose identity is stripped upon every visit back home, just like every woman currently residing in Iran.”
Pakdel-Cherry was selected for RSA New Contemporaries in 2024.