Leili Khabiri

Biography

Leili Khabiri, British-Iranian b.1997) Her practice focuses on the symbolism of process, how a work possesses an energy through the making rather than from the use of imagery. The pieces are artefacts of this rather than works existing to depict a certain emotion or concept. She avoids loud use of colour or imposing imagery, finding it to be too provoking, and developing her practice to be focused on energy in these time-consuming processes, producing works powerfully quiet in nature. Exploring how the long time spent, in weaving by hand for example, can be one of learning and understanding of thoughts (rather than a method of overcoming tediousness with patience or to produce for the purpose of proving something), and how this can be absorbed into a work naturally through the touch and energy emitted by the maker. Therefore, hand woven tapestries possess the energy of the weaver. The artist feels as if she is weaving herself into the fabric, whether that is a sentiment or energy. The act of weaving becomes the focus and is done in a manner that is symbolic and meditative.
Lying on the border between artistic form and necessity since the beginning of human existence, not only does textiles relate to all cultures today but also connects us back to ancestors thousands of years before us, as well as heavily representing the work and art of women.
Her method of hand weaving has not changed for millennia, there are no mechanisms or machines present, all actions are done by hand (even down to the loom handmade by herself and her father).
Skimming Stars Like Pebbles: Hand Woven Lullaby; The name she has given to her tapestries collectively, for each tales of night, dreams, and skies were the sentiments behind the weaving. A Lullaby relates to these subjects, but the etymology meaning ‘soft goodbye’ harks to the softness of textiles, simultaneously the quiet character of these tapestries.
Currently she is working on how ceramics (wall based ceramic sculptures) will go alongside these handwoven works. Both yarn and clay; soft in nature and found on earth, where the hand will leave a memory, becoming a relic of an emotion, but in a non-deliberate manner, a subject she is exploring. With an aim to create a space almost alter like, where these works feel like reliquaries or conduits for emotion, voicing this in a folkloric and poetic manner. Pieces that produce an almost uncanny atmosphere, where the energy makes the works feel like they are aware of being in the presence of the viewer, like they are pieces of soul in solid form.

Country United Kingdom

Website www.leilikhabiri.com