Hayv Kahraman: Fire Relief
This presentation offers a powerful window into Hayv’s personal and transformative practice. Sales from this viewing room will help Hayv and her family find normalcy after the fires.
This online viewing room features a selection of works on paper by Hayv Kahraman, created in California over recent years. These pieces hold even greater resonance today as Hayv and her family navigate the profound challenges of displacement after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
Displacement has always been central to Hayv’s art, reflecting her experiences as an Iraqi émigré journeying from Europe to the United States. Her work explores themes of exile, belonging, and resilience, offering a deeply personal perspective on the universal struggles of finding—and losing—one’s place in the world.
This selection showcases works from Hayv’s recent exhibitions: Look Me in the Eyes at the Frye Art Museum and ICA San Francisco, and The Foreign in Us at the Moody Centre. The works from Look Me in the Eyes depict figures contorting to fit into systems of power, yet their unwavering gazes assert agency, emphasizing the body as a site of survival and renewal. The flax works explore themes of immunology, microbiology, and history through the lens of the othered body. Hayv’s figures, often shown in contorted postures, challenge gender norms and racial stereotypes that disproportionately affect migrant communities. These works address the scrutiny and isolation of being perceived as "other," using the eye motif to symbolize both external surveillance and internal resilience—concepts that now deeply resonate with Hayv’s own experience of displacement.
“My work as an artist has always been deeply tied to themes of displacement, resilience, and regeneration. Over the past few months, I’ve been painting what I call ‘ghost fires,’ which feel eerily prophetic considering recent events. These paintings explore the entangled relationships between humans, nature, and the forces of destruction and renewal. Now, I find myself living through the very themes I’ve been exploring in my art, which has been both overwhelming and deeply challenging.” — Hayv Kahraman