Yasna - Embargo Memory
Embargo Memory is the fifth full-length album produced under the Yasna moniker. The album as a whole is a sonic culmination and continuation of the project's core themes that include diaspora and discordance of memory.
In sound and aesthetics, the album is inspired by an image found on Google street view of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran - now named 'The Den of Espionage' - which depicts a display of puppets representing American hostages, on display for tourists.
From a moment of ubiquitous revolutionary spirit in 1979 - one that changed the world, and would determine the course of my life - reduced down to touristic kitsch, this is an exploration of the various senses of farce and contradiction attached to the post-revolutionary Iranian-American experience.
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Reflex Activities
Started in 2016, Reflex Activities is an ongoing series that reflects on the interwoven relationship between leisure and work, and when the act of tourism imbues actual reprieve or continued labor. It has functioned as an unexpected exercise in a changed relationship to a subject. What began from a perspective of critique evolved into romanticism, which now has now become one of deep nostalgia.
Haft-Seen
Haft-Seen (trailer)
Co-directors: Stacey Tran, Jonathan Raissi, Roland Dahwen Wu
A visual poem written and scored by Stacey Tran, Jonathan Raissi, and Roland Dahwen Wu, HAFT-SEEN is an homage to immigrant experiences and first-generation narratives of inheritance, spirituality, and the threads of diaspora that pass through generations.
Haft-Seen has been screened and performed at the NW Film Center, Portland State University, Una Gallery and High and Low Gallery.