A long letter to home
A long letter to home (2015)
84 envelopes and unknown collaborators' responses on paper
Photography: Layli Rakhsha
A long letter to home represents my investigation on the idea of home, what home means in relation to a place, and how emotions and experiences distinguish home from homeland. This project is based on a collaboration with Iranian people living in Iran. In 2015, I made 100 envelopes out of printed images of maps of Western Australia and Tehran. I left a small blank card in each envelope and sent them to my sister and brother in Tehran. I asked them to distribute the envelopes to friends and acquaintances and ask them to collaborate in the project by replying to two questions. What do you imagine when you hear the word khaneh (home) and what do you imagine when you hear the word vatan (homeland). Along with the 84 Iranian collaborators in this project living and working in Tehran, the Australian based artist Hossein Valamanesh enthusiastically contributed his responses to this project from Adelaide- Australia.
Selected responses are in this portfolio.