Born to lineages of Sufi mystics (paternal) and moderniser kings (maternal), I am an Afghan-bred, American-born seeker with degrees in Cultural Anthropology. My creative practice to date has utilised an experimental ethnographic approach, combining qualitative research, traditional storytelling, postmodern narrative strategies, and mixed-media (often site-specific installations) to approach themes such as belonging, identity politics, conflict, artifactual history, and migration; intentionally blurring and merging the lines between fact and fiction, documentation and imagination.
For the last several years, I have been on a path connecting more deeply with my authentic self, ancestral roots, emotional core, and physical body through shamanism; using various shamanic voyage rituals and different forms of modified consciousness techniques including chanting, meditation, drumming, breath and bodywork, music, dance, yoga, and plant medicines. This has led to a search for an “emotional” rather than “intellectual” truth in my artistic work, thereby becoming less interested in the intellectualisation of creation, and rather more interested in “feeling” (at core emotional and spiritual levels) my way through the creative process. My interest in engaging with, and further facilitating, the above mentioned “consciousness shifts” has led me to complete a range of trainings and experiences. I continue to further broaden my knowledge and practice through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) and direct work with a Brazilian shaman. I have also recently completed the amazingly transformative training to be a Shamanic Trance Dance Guide and Guardian.
I am based in Paris, France while I rethink and relearn everything within this multiverse of possibilities called life.
