Mona Bozorgi
'Strain and Strand'
Mona Bozorgi (SCAD M.F.A., photography, 2018) uses experimental photographic processes to examine the intersections of representation, objecthood, and gender. Bridging photography, sculpture, and fiber arts, her latest body of work expands on her ongoing series Threads of Freedom, which explores the role of imagery in Iranian women’s self-representation and performance of gender amid broader sociopolitical movements in the country. Printing photographs on silk then unraveling and reassembling them, Bozorgi overlays “selfie” images originally shared on social media of women participating in protests against government mandates enforcing the hijab, or headscarf. The resulting collages, composed of the individual silk strands and mounted within wooden frames reminiscent of daguerreotype cases, mirror the deluge of online imagery presented on cellphones’ boxed screens, meditate on female bodily autonomy and containment, and highlight the intimacy, vulnerability, and impact of public-facing images of oneself. Echoing silk’s unmatched tensile strength, Strain and Strand celebrates the resilience of women who stand strong individually and find great power together.
Mona Bozorgi (SCAD M.F.A., photography, 2018) uses experimental photographic processes to examine the intersections of representation, objecthood, and gender. Bridging photography, sculpture, and fiber arts, her latest body of work expands on her ongoing series Threads of Freedom, which explores the role of imagery in Iranian women’s self-representation and performance of gender amid broader sociopolitical movements in the country. Printing photographs on silk then unraveling and reassembling them, Bozorgi overlays “selfie” images originally shared on social media of women participating in protests against government mandates enforcing the hijab, or headscarf. The resulting collages, composed of the individual silk strands and mounted within wooden frames reminiscent of daguerreotype cases, mirror the deluge of online imagery presented on cellphones’ boxed screens, meditate on female bodily autonomy and containment, and highlight the intimacy, vulnerability, and impact of public-facing images of oneself. Echoing silk’s unmatched tensile strength, Strain and Strand celebrates the resilience of women who stand strong individually and find great power together.
About the artist
Mona Bozorgi (b. 1979, Tehran, Iran) is an artist-scholar whose interdisciplinary research and artistic practice explore the correlation between representation and performativity in photography. Her research is intertwined with posthuman critical theory and focuses on the process of the materialization of bodies and its impact on the construction and production of identities. Bozorgi’s recent work blends photography, textiles, and installation, examining the entanglement between the materiality of photographs and their meanings. Her work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries in the U.S. and internationally. In 2024, she was featured by the Florida Prize for Contemporary Art, selected for a Critical Mass Top 50, and honored as a recipient of the Houston Center for Photography Fellowship. Bozorgi holds a Ph.D. in fine arts with a focus on critical studies and artistic practice from Texas Tech University and an M.F.A. in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is an assistant professor of photography and head of the Photography and Moving Image area in the Department of Art at Florida State University.
Install Views
Credits
Strain and Strand is organized by SCAD Museum of Art assistant curator Haley Clouser and presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2026.
