It started as a method of making by following traces and repetition in action,in relation to “words”, to my Writings or Writings of others. I first used this in The Anatomy of a Journey, my artwork in response to Edwin Way Teale, an American naturalist’s archive, For Raid The Archive Exhibition.
The project is grounded in repetition and the differences it generates. Teale had a routine of walking a certain route every day and then writing; I decided to cut printed lines from a copy of that book and sew them all together, making an installation that speaks to the space and responds to the smallest movement of air.
Later I learned about ribbon maps: long, narrow maps designed to be rolled and unrolled from a spool to follow a continuous route (mostly rivers). I started calling this methodology “Ribbon Cartography.”

Later, I made another ribbon map, this time more of a non-map, free routes, with my words printed on handmade paper I made from the Farsi books I brought from home. After making the paper, I printed my text, then cut and sewed the lines.
This methodology, for me, is working with the “long lines of longing”. It keeps informing my practice.