My Heart Is Bloodied For You emerges from love for Iran and from the urgency of witnessing its present history. As an Iranian woman living in exile, Mahsa Attaran’s practice is shaped by ongoing state violence, gendered oppression, and the massacre of civilians, over 50,000 people, during the ongoing revolution. Her work responds to this moment as both testimony and refusal of silence.
Working as an Iranian woman in exile, Attaran moves across photography, video, installation, and handmade forms, centering women’s lives, domestic spaces, and forms of care as sites of political meaning. Her practice critiques violence enabled and normalized by patriarchal power structures, religious authoritarianism, and the laws of an extreme Islamist regime, while honoring the resilience of Iranian women, men, and children living under these conditions.
Attaran’s work asks viewers—particularly Western audiences—to confront the lived experience of life under state-enforced Sharia law, where rights are understood yet systematically denied. Rejecting ideological narratives, her practice centers the pursuit of dignity, safety, and self-determination amid ongoing political violence.
Rooted in devotion to her homeland and its people, Attaran’s critique arises from love. Through her practice, she asks viewers to witness, to sit with discomfort, and to recognize this violence as it continues to unfold.
Feb 14 - Mar 15 2026, Ball & Socket Arts, Cheshire, CT
Feb 14 - Mar 15 2026, Ball & Socket Arts, Cheshire, CT
