Ritual is an ongoing body of work made up of photography, film clips, and performance—mostly self-recorded using a tripod. It began as a response to a self-portrait I captured in the Iranian desert in 2010. During lockdown, I dreamed of returning to Iran to create and connect—but instead, I visited Dungeness in Kent, often referred to as the “British desert.” It was there that the Ritual project was born.

Over the years, this embodied and intimate work has evolved into a kind of contemporary ritual—integrating body, space, and time through movement, intuition, and the elements: air, water, earth. It became a deep journey into embodied narratives, the underworld, and the subconscious.

Ritual explores themes of memory, resilience, belonging, grief, and surrender to the unknown. It celebrates the transformative potential and alchemy within the body.

Guided by my ancestry and the power I feel in my body—ignited through connection with the land and the elements—I’ve come to see ritual as a tool for healing and liberation. This work is a living inquiry into what it means to be fully alive, and attuned to the raw edges of experience.

I cultivate a relationship with my body through self-portraiture, using “bodily knowing” to listen and respond to what is stored within. Stillness, intimacy, and exploration are at the core of this intuitive, cathartic, and healing process.

Over the past five years, I’ve performed and documented these rituals across various landscapes and countries. Colour, wind, and water act as collaborators in my engagement with trauma, identity, memory, and recovery. This artistic practice has deepened my sense of personal liberation and body-acceptance, offering a sacred container for embodied stories to be told and transformed.

Through Ritual, I explore spiritual alchemy—the art of transformation—and how the body remembers, speaks, and heals through movement and devotion. This work is rooted in nature and a longing to access the body’s spiritual intelligence.