“Rah Eleh introduced The /Da (2018), a proposal crossed by her experience of the diaspora and the forced adoption of the linguistic ideologies of our country. With her eminently choreographed performance and the precise execution of coordinated gestures, Rah Eleh denounced her compulsory literacy. The action referred to the reminiscences of her arrival in Canada, …
Proshat Kalami: In 2012 you performed a tea ceremony in protest outside the Iranian embassy in Canada. What was the genesis of that piece and how did you situate your body as Rah within the location of culture and performance of culture that your character was performing for, I am assuming, mostly Canadian audience? Rah- In …
SuperNova, Digital Video, 2018, various iterations SuperNova is a talent show parody that consists of seven characters in which I perform. The performers are Oreo, Fatimeh, and Coco and each of their acts examine issues of race and ethnic performance; Oreo performs a magic trick with a deck of white “race cards,” Fatimeh sings and …
Oreo performs the role of a docent and takes the viewer through Robert Fone’s exhibition.
Ethnic Roots is a parody that blends film noir and the format of DIY youtube tutorials. “Oreo” performs as a femme fatale and reflects on an encounter with a detective who attempts to guess her ethnicity. Oreo believes it is her “ethnic roots” referring to her hair roots that has “given her away.” Oreo introduces …
https://www.instagram.com/oreo_liveitwhite/?hl=en
The documentary is about five sisters that reunite in Istanbul after 27 years. The personal and political merge together while the conversations of these long-time separated sisters reflect on the past and memory: war, life in exile, immigration, and activism are topics unravelled in this sensitive cinematic encounter. Die Dokumentation handelt von fünf Schwestern, die …
Rah started this work as a solo performance “NW25” (Neutral Warm 25) for Process 9 at Artscape Youngplace in Toronto. Rah was invited by MUU Gallery in Finland to create a performance for Art Fair Suomi. The one-hour performance involved several female collaborators and each woman had the numerical code of their skin tone based …
The Oriental Dance Workshop was performed by Rah’s character Fatimeh. This workshop has been performed at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY (August 2015), Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa (September 2015) and Nuit Blanche Montreal ( February 2016). Fatimeh is an accessible character and she uses comedy to lure the participant while confronting them …
Read more “Oriental Dance Workshop, Coalesce, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, 2015”
“Refugees Welcome” is a three channel video installation that addresses the complex experiences of LGBT Iranian expats and refugees living in Vienna. The first video of three shows the collaborators prior to the interview. Rah is seen syncing the camera and the audio, meanwhile the camera captures a poignant psychological state of …
#ArabianNights was commissioned by the Ottawa International Animation Festival for the “Disney Made Me Do It” exhibition and auction.