Raheleh Filsoofi and Eric André: From Common Clay

Two artists—one from Iran and one from Ghana—explore the intersections of common themes and questions affecting us all. Each artist has common roots in traditional clay practice, but also work outside these traditions and materials to explore dynamics in our collective contemporary socio-cultural and political fabric. The artists are passionate ceramic educators who create from a common recognition that in order to heal, wounds must be acknowledged, and that art is central to this process. Raheleh Filsoofi Iranian-born artist Filsoofi is a collector of soil and sound, an itinerant artist, feminist curator, and community service advocate. Her work synthesizes socio-political statements as a point of departure and further challenges these fundamental arguments by incorporating ancient and contemporary media such as ceramics, poetry, ambient sound, and video. Her interdisciplinary practices act as the interplay between the literal and figurative contexts of land, ownership, immigration, and border. Her current exhibitions include Imagined Boundaries, an interactive multimedia installation at Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC (2023-2024), Diphtheria, a multimedia installation at Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, GA (2023), and Only Sound Remains, an interactive multimedia installation at the Sharjah Biennial 15, Thinking Historically in the Present in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2023). Filsoofi’s Imagined Boundaries a multimedia installation, consisting of two separate exhibitions, debuted concurrently in a solo exhibition at the Abad Gallery in Tehran and group exhibition Dual Frequency at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Floridain 2017. The installation in each country connected audiences in the U.S. and Iran for few hours in the night of the show opening. She has been the 2022 Winner of the 1858 Contemporary Southern Art Award and the recipient of the 2021 Southern Prize Tennessee State Fellowship. She is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art at Vanderbilt University. She holds an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Florida Atlantic University and a B.F.A. in Ceramics from Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran. Eric André André is from the Ashanti Region, Ghana in West Africa. His practice explores immigrants' experiences of displacement, vulnerability, and negotiation of place to challenge the ubiquitous and complex sociocultural, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic control systems. As an interdisciplinary artist, educated in Ghana and the US, he has had the opportunity to work in cross-cultural artistic environments and gain broad multimedia experience. He has held numerous solo exhibitions, and his works have been included in group exhibitions in Ghana and many venues across the United States. His most recent exhibitions include “The Systemic Punches: Displacement Experience of the Vulnerable Immigrant” at Arts On Main in Van Buren and FNAR Gallery, School of Art at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville, Arkansas (2021, 2023); Stetson University Faculty Biennial Exhibition at the Hand Art Center, University in Deland, Florida (2023); The fear of the fearless, Main Gallery by CACHE in Springdale Arkansas (2023); and The Medium is The Message: The African Diaspora Story at the Taylor Hall Gallery, University of Delaware in Newark Delaware (2021). He holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and a BFA from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, where he became a Teaching and Research Assistant and a Principal Lab/Studio Technician in the Ceramics Department. Eric also worked as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arkansas and the Curator at Art for Ventures Gallery in Fayetteville. Most recently, he has been the Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Stetson University in DeLand and a visiting artist instructor at Crealdé School of Art. In conjunction with this exhibition, Raheleh Filsoofi and her husband, renowned musician Reza Filsoofi, will conduct a hands-on Darbuka Drum Workshop and Performance. The experience will teach the art of crafting clay darbuka drums using traditional techniques, culminating in a vibrant public drum circle and public performance that weaves together clay and music to foster cultural connection, collective identity, and community healing. The workshop will take place at Crealdé’s main campus on Saturday, November 2, 2024, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the performance and drum circle will take place Sunday, November 3, 2024, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. (location TBD). Both events are open to the public; workshop space is limited and will include a fee to cover expenses.