The Tool That Could Part Tangled Things

The tool that could part tangled things is a response to a poem titled “Second Generation” that appears in the chapbook Light Years (Baseline Press, 2022) by Toronto-based poet Laboni Islam. Esfahani uses Google Translate for the translation of the poem from English to Farsi and embraces the inadequacy of the translated text as a way of introducing an element of foreignness. Therefore, the translation becomes “the staging of cultural difference” in Bhabha’s terms, in which the migrant’s struggle operates in a process of transformation and proposes the act of translation as a trope for the act of displacement. In this body of work, Esfahani uses language to dislocate the original and destabilize cultural identification in order to construct a space of in-betweeness.

"Second Generation", vinyl, approx. 55 feet, 2023

"Second Generation", detail, vinyl, approx. 55 feet, 2023

"Second Generation", detail, vinyl, approx. 55 feet, 2023

"Second Generation", detail, vinyl, approx. 55 feet, 2023

"Second Generation", detail, vinyl, approx. 55 feet, 2023

"Second Generation", detail, vinyl, approx. 55 feet, 2023

V2 Soheila Esfahani - The Tool That Could Part Tangled Things-laser-etching on wooden combs 2023

"The Tool That Could Part Tangled Things", laser-etched wooden combs, dimensions variable, 2023

"Who Slipped the Slide in Your Carousel?", slide projection, 2023

Soheila Esfahani-Tags in My Corduroys-Canada Goose-laser etching on wood-2023

"Tags in My Corduroys: Made in Canada", laser-etching on wood, 6x8 in, 2023

Soheila Esfahani-Tags in My Corduroys-Maryam-laser etching on wood-2023

"Tags in My Corduroys: Made in Iran", laser-etching on wood, 6x8 in, 2023

Soheila Esfahani-Tags in My Corduroys-H&M-laser etching on wood-2023

"Tags in My Corduroys: Made in Bangladesh", laser-etching on wood, 6x8 in, 2023

14 photo credit Becky Comber copy

"Do You Miss it?", collected wooden objects, dimensions variable, 2023, photo: Becky Comber

"Is that your homeland? (Canada)", mixed media on wood, 6x12 in, 2023

"Is that your homeland? (Iran)", mixed media on wood, 6x12 in, 2023

"Is that your homeland? (Bangladesh)", mixed media on wood, 6x12 in, 2023

31 A Trace of Traceless-Canada-donation Art Gallery of Mississauga

"A Trace of Traceless: Waterloo II", laser-etching on collected object on wood, 6x8 in, 2021

11 A Trace of the Traceless Isfahan

"A Trace of Traceless: Isfahan", laser-etching on collected object on wood, 6x8 in, 2022

"A Trace of Traceless: Bangladesh", laser-etching on collected object on wood, 6x8 in, 2023

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CURRENT EXHIBITION

Are We T[here] Yet?

solo exhibition
curated by Niku Koochak

July 17- September 21

opening reception: Thursday July 17th, 5-9 pm; Artist talk: 8:00-8:30 pm

Art Windsor-Essex
Windsor, ON

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.

As an Iranian Canadian artist based in Waterloo, Ontario, Esfahani investigates how cultural forms change through translation, migration, and reproduction. Her practice draws on both handmade and mass-produced objects, placing them in conversation to examine how meaning is shaped and reshaped.

Esfahani’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Aga Khan Museum (Toronto), the Canadian Cultural Centre (Paris), and the Canadian Museum of Immigration (Halifax), and is held in collections such as the Canada Council Art Bank. She currently teaches at Western University and is a member of Toronto’s Red Head Gallery.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

The Seeker & the Search

solo Exhibition

August 29-November 16, 2025

Richmond Hill Public Library Glass Case Gallery Richmond Hill, ON

The Seeker & The Search is a response to the following verses by Rumi: I’m weary of beast and devil, a man is my desire. They said, “It is not to be found, we too have searched.” He answered, “What is not to be found is my desire.” Starting with the original Persian script in this body of work, the calligraphy moves towards abstraction, so that the language is obscured into rhythm with only fragments of words showing here and there. Text is extended even as it is deconstructed into mystery and texture. The hidden or background stands out as foreground, and the original lines of script move into spaces in-between which further emphasize the concept of unattainable; “not to be found”. These works are a record of Esfahani’s search; a map of her quest for “what cannot be found.”

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