Anahita
2019
light, water, iron, paint, transducer, ceramic
dimensions variable
Anahita is an ancient pre-Zorastrian goddess of water. In the piece, “Anahita,” viewers are invited to interact with water clocks in a dimly blue lit room painted photographic 18% gray, containing plaster fingers that are painted the same shade of gray in reference to the violence of visual technology as measured by 18% reflectance in visible light.
The walls of the space are amplified with the sound of water, translating into a deep rumbling against the soothing ambience of water trickling in and out of the water clocks in the center of the room. Water clocks were the earliest time telling methods. In ancient Iran, they were used to determine solstices, and later served as a tool to ensure equal water distribution to shareholders.
These water clocks are speculative, rather than timed to solstices, as had been historically, they represent units of relational experience. As interactions are cast into the water, and light reflections onto the ceiling, I ask, what if water determined time instead of the digits of the clock?
Classified as a syncretistic goddess, diluted and adapted by patriarchies through empires, religions, and cultures, Anahita is entwined through the piece by de-positioning linear history as patriarchal storytelling through relational speculations on historicities within Islam, the relationship and control of water and time, labor, and war.