Between Dreams and Ruins is a body of work born from a question that cannot be answered while awake: who am I? Searching the corners of memory beyond conscious reach, Fereshteh found not a single image but many. Grief, love, tension and screams. Poems and songs. Fragments of ancestral memory, wars, and the deaths that follow them.

Working without a plan or preliminary sketch, Fereshteh shaped each canvas first, allowing its creases to become part of the painting. Drawing on a watercolour practice, acrylic colour is left to run, move and settle on its own terms. Images emerge, shift and entangle, soft and dreamlike one moment, dark, fragmented and unsettling the next.

The motherland is burning, and so are the threads of identity. Yet love lives here too, for what is remembered, for what is carried, and for the life that has been built. Grief and love occupy the same space, as do fear and hope, and it is not always possible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

This exhibition invites viewers into a quiet, searching encounter with memory, contradiction and the things that resist naming. Each work offers a glimpse of who the artist was, who she is, and who she is still becoming.

All parts of the self, between dreams and ruins.

Exhibition Details

Opening Night: 26 November, 6 – 8 PM
Location: 59 Flinders St. Surry Hills

Curator: Farideh Zariv

Artists

Associate Professor Fereshteh Pourkazemi is an award-winning artist and researcher whose work explores the connection between creativity, visual arts, and health. An intuitive artist, she began exploring, drawing, and painting as soon as she could hold a pencil. Without formal training, she absorbed inspiration from the world around her, learning from every available resource. Along the way, she was guided by Dr Nasser Palangi who has played a pivotal role in shaping her artistic vision, helping her expand her imaginative expression through his mentorship.

Her paintings reflect what makes her heart sing and calms her soul—nature, flowers, the playfulness of light, and intimate explorations of the feminine self. 

She works with both watercolours and acrylics, each medium allowing her to express different aspects of emotion and movement. Watercolours evoke stillness and pause, while acrylics burst with rhythm, music, and dance. Refusing to be confined by a single medium or art form, she lets colour guide her expression, embracing fluidity and exploration in her creative process. 

I started trying to remember… who I was. Who I am, deep there, in the corners I cannot reach while awake. Or perhaps I am not awake… perhaps it is all a dream.
As I tried to remember, images merged. Grief, love, tension, screams. Poems and songs. Fragments of ancestral memories. Wars… wars… death. Some images I recognised. Others surfaced before I had words for them.
I began without a fixed plan or preliminary sketch. I shaped the canvas, letting its creases become part of the work. Drawing on my watercolour practice, I let the acrylic colours run, move and settle. Images emerged, shifted, became entangled. Soft and dream-like, then dark, fragmented, unsettling. I followed them, trying to recognise myself.
The motherland is burning… and so are the threads of my identity.
There is love here, too. For what I remember. For what I carry. For the life I have made. Grief and love occupy the same space. So do fear and hope. I cannot always tell where one ends and another begins.
These works hold parts of me I am still trying to reach. Memories, contradictions, things I cannot quite name. As I paint, I catch glimpses… of who I was, who I am, who I am still becoming.
All parts of me… between dreams and ruins.

Artworks