Works · Forough Haghani

Thread and fabric

2022-2024

Stitching repairs as it describes: quilted heads, beads and velvet, where the drawn face becomes a sewn one.

Picasso’s Dream: A quilted fabric face lying on its side inside rings of beaded and stuffed fabric bands — *Picasso’s Dream*, 2024Fabric and thread, 46 × 53 cm

A quilted fabric face framed by bands of purple, brown, orange and green fabric, hung from a loop — Untitled, 2022Fabric and thread, 45 × 55 cm

Butterfly’s Dream: A green velvet creature with embroidered eyes and a beaded back — *Butterfly’s Dream*, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 23 × 49 × 63 cm

Soft figures

2024

Many of the figures hang in the air. Handwriting, beads and visible stitches stay on the surface, like notes on skin.

Our Dance Comes from Within: A fabric dress on a hanger, covered with small embroidered faces and fringes of coloured thread — *Our Dance Comes from Within*, 2024Fabric and thread, 55 × 125 cm

Must Everything Be Big?: A large stuffed yellow figure with handwritten text, hanging on a lattice — *Must Everything Be Big?*, 2024Stuffed textile figure with handwritten text

White stuffed legs in green beaded shoes, a long arm and a dress, hanging from a rail — Untitled, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 117 × 84 cm

A heap of stuffed fabric tubes in many colours, with a sewn face at the top — Untitled, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 73 × 120 cm

Roots and home

2024-2026

Patchwork, wire and thread grow into roots, pots and nests: works about home and about what keeps growing.

One Day the Hard Will Become Easy: A stitched patchwork hung from a twisted wire rod, with a root of thread growing from its lower edge — *One Day the Hard Will Become Easy*, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 72 × 145 cm

Reyhaneh: A potted plant with veined green leaves and a purple flower spike, sewn from fabric over wire — *Reyhaneh*, 2025Fabric, thread and wire, 30 × 32 cm

Dedicated to the Next Generation: Curling brown fabric leaves around small white fabric flowers, with thread roots — *Dedicated to the Next Generation*, 2026Fabric, thread and wire, 28 × 45 cm

Home: A small round form wrapped in red, orange and cream thread, with beads on top — *Home*, 2024Fabric and thread, 20 × 20 cm

White fabric flowers on tall wire stems in a white faceted vase — Untitled, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 36 × 73 × 108 cm

New Balance: A fabric sapling with two leaves growing from a dark, shoe-shaped root ball — *New Balance*, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 21 × 30 cm

Textile botany

2024-2026

Flowers, saplings and nests, sewn from fabric strips over wire.

Eight Flowers, Thirty-Three Leaves: Pink fabric flowers and green leaves with long wire roots, on a white wall — *Eight Flowers, Thirty-Three Leaves*, 2024Fabric, thread and wire, 130 × 75 cm

Like the Cold Autumn Wind: A round nest woven from fabric strips and wire — *Like the Cold Autumn Wind*, 2025Fabric strips, wire and thread

A white fabric swan — Untitled, 2025Fabric strips, wire and thread

Turtle: A fabric turtle on wet sand at the sea — *Turtle*, 2026Fabric strips, wire and thread

Works in the landscape

2024

She takes soft sculptures and textile plants outside, to the seashore, the forest and the road, and films how they stand in the world. All untitled, made around Rasht in 2024.

A fabric panel with tree motifs on a frame on the beach — Untitled (seashore), 2024Installation, video

Soft white figures on a tall stand at the edge of the sea — Untitled (seashore), 2024Installation, video

A tall tree trunk in a green forest — Untitled (forest), 2024Video

A soft figure seated on a chair, with coiled fabric at its feet — Untitled (seated figure), 2024Video

A fabric plant with a red flower standing in the middle of a country road — Untitled (road), 2024Installation, video

Fabric saplings in black nursery bags along a park path — Untitled (saplings), 2024Installation, video

Oil pastel

2023-2024

Oil pastel on cardboard, drawn and then scratched with the fingernails. Mirrors, goddesses, Freud and the self.

Me, Others: A woman in a mirror above a table crowded with cosmetics — *Me, Others*, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard, 70 × 100 cm

Anahita: A crowned goddess pouring water from a jug — *Anahita*, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard, 70 × 100 cm

For Reyhaneh’s Ears: Two faces behind a dark blue field of scribbled lines — *For Reyhaneh’s Ears*, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard, 70 × 100 cm

Don’t Forget: A small seated figure at a kitchen table, surrounded by appliances — *Don’t Forget*, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard, 100 × 70 cm

Suitcase: A woman with blue eyes surrounded by suitcases and a teddy bear — *Suitcase*, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard, 50 × 70 cm

S.F. (Sigmund Freud): Portrait of Sigmund Freud with a bag marked S.F. — *S.F. (Sigmund Freud)*, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard, 50 × 70 cm

A woman with a bob haircut and a red bead necklace between two vases — Untitled, 2023Oil pastel on cardboard

A figure whose arms become bare branches against a blue ground — From a series of nine portraits, 2024Oil pastel on cardboard, 30 × 30 cm

Self-portrait in a blue sweater on a pale ground — From a series of nine portraits, 2024Oil pastel on cardboard, 30 × 30 cm

Faces

2023

From autumn 2021 Forough drew dozens of faces with large, frightened eyes and skin crossed by many lines. The method was always the same: pencil, then ink lines, then colour.

Drawn face with green skin and a black braid — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Drawn face with brown hair and pale blue eyes — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Grey drawn face on a sketchbook page — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Pink face with yellow eyes and blue hair — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Wide face with red hair and orange eyes — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Green face with large round eyes — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Face with green hair and one red eye — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Pencil face drawn in dashed lines — Untitled, 2023Coloured pencil and technical pen on paper, 30 × 30 cm

Masks and embroidery

2023-2026

The face again, in clay and in thread.

A ceramic mask of a woman’s face, hung on a wire — Self-portrait mask, 2026Ceramic

A ceramic mask of Sigmund Freud’s face — Mask (Freud), 2026Ceramic

Faces and scissors embroidered in black and coloured thread on white fabric — Embroidered faces (detail), 2023Thread on fabric