Sheida Soleimani
Exodus, 2024
Archival pigment print
61 x 45.7 cm
24 x 18 in
24 x 18 in
Edition of 5 plus 2 AP
Copyright the artist & Harlan Levey Projects
Chimney Swifts are no bigger than a hand, and they migrate more than 10,000 km per year, traveling from North America to the Amazon Basin. As brick chimneys fall out...
Chimney Swifts are no bigger than a hand, and they migrate more than 10,000 km per year, traveling from North America to the Amazon Basin. As brick chimneys fall out of use, and old-growth forests are logged, their habitat disappears; their population has declined over 50% in the last half-century. Soleimani and her mother specialize in rehabilitating this species; in Exodus, she photographs five injured Swifts inside of their wildlife refuge. One bird is perched in her father (or baba)’s hand, above a flesh-colored object resembling a car wheel. The link between the artist’s family and these migratory birds is more than metaphorical; from their own experience of displacement, the Soleimanis have developed a practice of care, offering refuge to these fellow exiles.