Artist at work: Derakhshani on the effect of time and place

In this conversation, Nava Derakhshani speaks to David Mann about her evolving practice, and how different cities have necessitated key shifts in her approach to art-making

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Movement necessitates change. The act of travelling to different places with new contexts shifts our ways of seeing and engaging with the world, and influences our understanding of the places we've journeyed from. This is true of artists, too. An artist’s practice is deeply affected by the places in which they live and work.

The artist Nava Derakhshani has worked in ceramics, performance, photography, video and installation, moving from architectural studies to artistic practice.

Born in southern Africa to Iranian parents, Derakhshani has lived, studied and worked in cities including Cape Town, Mbabane, Gaborone, Johannesburg and New York, where she has recently completed her MFA at Hunter College.

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David Mann: You've moved across architecture, photography, collage, performance and now ceramics and sculpture. What is the conceptual thread that runs through your work?

Nava Derakhshani: For me, the impulse has been around art-making through material exploration, and the seeking of joy through the specific medium. Clay, for example, is a grounding material that requires patience and attentiveness from the maker.

I had the privilege of making a number of iterations of my performance piece with new collaborators, and this contributed to the work’s evolution with the input of my collaborators’ expertise. I see materials as tools to accomplish the art that I am seeking; the more tools I have in my box, the more freedom I have to make new work.

At the same time, there are thematic throughlines in all of my work.

Studying architecture at the University of Cape Town gave me a spatial understanding of the remnants of apartheid’s segregation in Cape Town and the deep injustices perpetuated on the city scale.