mehran modarres-sadeghi

In residence: 2018, 2019

My current artistic research is evolving out of my two artist residencies at Coppermoss in May 2018 and March 2019. My research explores the ecological and political significance of food plants (edible wild plants) in British Columbia. These plants played a significant role in the indigenous peoples’ traditional culture. Traditionally, the indigenous peoples living in British Columbia possessed an intimate knowledge of the local flora, and made use of a variety of plant species for food, medicine, and other purposes.

It was an important tradition for indigenous peoples to harvest roots, bulbs, and shoots in the spring. They would preserve some of these harvested plants and save them to eat in the winter. Incredibly, at times these preserved plants would be there only source of food during the cold winter season. In start contrast, today these plants are now seldom used following settlers’ colonialization of the region. While indigenous peoples still practice many aspects of their traditional culture, there are few people alive who remember the details of their traditional plant usage. From my research, I am developing a series of large drawings, drawn directly from the preserved, pressed plants, using graphite/ink on paper. These drawings reference the plants as a memory of a tradition that has been lost. My drawings are of the collection of pressed plants at UBC Herbarium Museum and my personal work-in-progress collection of dried plants. During a follow up artist residency at Coppermoss, I would search for more of these wild plants, including, Tiger Lily (Lilium columbianum) (s-pán-axw), Chocolate Lily (s-yé?-ukw’) (Fritillaria lanceolate), Blue Camas (Camassia quamash) (indigenous name unknown), and Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) (náts’-ús-ím s-t’áshat). As well, I would like to learn names of these plants in the native Sechelt language and their use for indigenous peoples.

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. Originally from Isfahan, Iran, she immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, several years ago where she received her BFA in Visual Art and BEd in Visual Art (high school) from the University of British Columbia, and an MFA in Visual Art from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Her work has been exhibited at Cityscape Art Gallery, North Vancouver, and in several group exhibitions at Surrey Art Gallery, at the Concourse Gallery as part of the graduate interim exhibition at Emily Carr University, at Centre A’s Spring Exhibition, and recently as part of the Emily Carr University graduate exhibition at Charles H. Scott Gallery.  

http://mehranmodarres.com