ARE WE T[HERE] YET? asks whether stories can ever truly be finished, or if they are always in a process of retelling, reinventing, and reinterpretation. This exhibition doesn’t ask the viewer to identify what is “real,” but instead invites reflection: How does meaning form? Is it in the object? The touch? The story? Or simply the gaze?
Imagine a love story told a hundred years ago, in a land far from here, within a culture unfamiliar to your own. That story inspires the creation of a handmade bowl, a carved ornament, a painted plate, or perhaps a ceramic bird. Over time, the story fades, but the object remains. Or maybe just part of the lone bird survives the shard with a painted flower.
That fragment travels. It is copied, collected, and reimagined. It enters new hands and new places, adopted by other cultures who reinterpret its form for beauty, for curiosity, or for commerce. Its meaning drifts. Eventually, its origin may become unclear or even forgotten. We see this in blue-and-white ceramics replicated across centuries, or floral motifs that pass between continents, shifting in meaning as they move.
Soheila Esfahani’s work explores this transformation. Being there and here. ARE WE T[HERE] YET? brings together ceramic birds, painted plates, and sculptural elements some handmade, others factory-produced or collected over time. These objects occupy a space between authenticity and adaptation, challenging our impulse to trace things back to a singular, fixed origin.
-curator Niku Koochak
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"Mapping of a Quest", detail, acrylic on Mylar, 270 in x 36 in, 2008, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Mapping of a Quest", acrylic on Mylar, 270 in x 36 in, 2008, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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Left: "Mapping of a Quest", acrylic on Mylar, 270 in x 36 in, 2008
Right: "Here & There" series, laser-cut aluminum, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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Left to right: "Here: Canada Goose", "There: Elephant-bird", "There: Rabbit", "Here: Moose", laser-cut aluminum, approx. 24 in x 34 in, 2022-2025, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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Installation view, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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Installation view, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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Installation view, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Portable Culture: Mallards & Reeds", detail, acrylic paint and laser etching on collected wooden objects, 2021, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Here & There: Souvenir plates", Mixed media on collected ceramic plates, dimensions varies, 2019-2022, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Here & There: Souvenir plates", detail, Mixed media on collected ceramic plates, dimensions varies, 2019-2022, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Here & There: Souvenir plates", detail, Mixed media on collected ceramic plates, dimensions varies, 2019-2022, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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Front: "The Immigrants: Art Windsor Essex", Hand-made & collected porcelain birds, 2017-ongoing, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"The Immigrants: Art Windsor Essex", detail, Hand-made & collected porcelain birds, 2017-ongoing, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"The Immigrants: Art Windsor Essex", detail, Hand-made & collected porcelain birds, 2017-ongoing, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"The Immigrants: Art Windsor Essex", detail, Hand-made & collected porcelain birds, 2017-ongoing, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"The Immigrants: Art Windsor Essex", interactive activity, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Cultured Pallets: Double Door from North Mazandaran, Iran", acrylic and laser-etching on wooden shipping pallets, 40in x 48in x 64in, 2023, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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"Cultured Pallets: Double Door from North Mazandaran, Iran", acrylic and laser-etching on wooden shipping pallets, 40in x 48in x 64in, 2023, Image courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex, photograph by Frank Piccolo
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