e: heather.ariyeh@gmail.com

w: heatherariyeh.com

I engage in materials-based investigations of social problems and social constructions of lived realities. My background in sociology, gender-based violence and sexual assault advocacy, as well as public health inform my interest in systems – be it the state, the organization, or the family – and how individuals navigate these systems with a sense of agency.  I am also interested in how media and culture affect the experience of living within one’s body.  One of my primary goals as an artist and human is to improve social realities and opportunities, work which is informed through the lens of critical theory.

I am animated by Love.

Stay with me.

Love is a verb. It describes a relational activity that neither dominates others nor allows for domination of the self.

It’s the difficult work of de-centering the self, without invalidating the self.

Love is found at the crossroads of our altruism and our self-interest. It’s the thing that when we do it, we help ourselves by helping each other and therefore provides us with meaning in relationship to ourselves and others.

It’s the path away from hate, leading to peace. Philosopher, Harry G. Frankfurt, explains that love provides us “with volitional continuity, and in that way constitute[s] and participate[s] in our own agency”.

Love has intrinsic value and defies the economics of materialism, but love is tricky. Its form isn’t always clear, and our perception of its edges shift.

Domination and erasure (and therefore brokenness and loss) occur in individuals, families, groups, and communities.

Intimate partner violence, colonialism, and everything in between are based on models of domination rather than love.

As defined, love is prevention, intervention, and treatment of these social problems.

My goal as an artist is to facilitate models of engagement based on love. So, you might say more specifically my practice is animated by teaching and learning how to love.

We can do this work together. Let us share with one another and be whole. But whatever we build, it must never mimic the models of imperialism (the master’s tools).