Chambre d'Amis | Dallas - Edition 3 - Sheida Soleimani

Sheida Soleimani (b. 1990) lives and works in Providence, United States. 

Sheida Soleimani is an artist, educator, and licensed wildlife rehabilitator whose work examines power, environmental crisis, queerness, migration, and care. The daughter of political refugees who escaped Iran in the early 1980s, Soleimani draws on archival materials, props, and sculptural elements to create visually lush, politically incisive tableaux. She works across various mediums, investigating themes such as oil politics and human rights abuses, confronting the systems of violence linking the SWANA region and the United States, unraveling their implications in American culture. 

Though her images are dreamlike, they are grounded in lived experience: her parents frequently appear as subjects, in compositions made from elements of their (sometimes harrowing) tales. Increasingly, wildlife enters the frame – injured and orphaned birds, with their own quiet stories of migration and survival. Before the lens, these animals encapsulate Soleimani's multifaceted practice: care as art, storytelling as resistance. 

Soleimani teaches at Brandeis University and runs Congress of the Birds, a wildlife clinic where care and artistic practice intersect. Her work is exhibited internationally and held in major museum collections. In 2025, she received the MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work for her series Flyways.

DJ Hellerman is a dynamic curator and arts leader whose practice centers on collaboration, experimentation, and supporting artist-led processes. He currently serves as Deputy Director and Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa), where he helps shape the institution's evolving curatorial vision. Previously, Hellerman was Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, where he organized poetic, experimental exhibitions grounded in creative risk and community engagement. His curatorial interests span art, technology, spirituality, and early video practice, with a focus on place-sensitive art making and alternative museum models. Earlier in his career, he held curatorial roles at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, and Burlington City Arts in Vermont, establishing a reputation for thoughtful, interdisciplinary programming.

Archival pigment print, 61 x 45.7 cm - 24 x 18 in. Edition of 5 plus 2 AP

A raven lies still, its beak gently filled with walnuts — an offering both tender and symbolic. Drawing from her mother's memories of gathering walnuts under watchful crows in Iran, Soleimani stages a moment of intimate restitution. The image folds care, guilt, and inheritance into a quiet ritual of return. This work exemplifies Soleimani’s ability to transform personal memory into layered political allegory. Remorse holds strong narrative weight and visual clarity, focusing on feminist praxis, diasporic identity, and symbolism.

When Bernie arrived at our facility two weeks ago, his condition was dire. He had been severely burned by a methane flare near the state landfill-a common hazard for birds in that area. His feathers were completely stripped and burned, rendering him unable to fly. When found, he was dehydrated, emaciated, and struggling to survive.

 

In just the two weeks that he has been with us, he has stabilized, and is doing beautifully. Every day, he grows stronger and continues to gain weight. Tri-weekly physical therapy means that his pectoral muscles will stay strong, and that his joints won't freeze from lack of movement. But what happens next? How will he fly again?

Adult hawks moult (grow new feathers) during late summer, but it's a slow process-just a few feathers at a time. Every single feather on this brave bird's body is damaged, and it will take over 8 months for him to grow them all back. Only after a full moult, will he be able to fly again, and will need additional time in our flight enclosure to help him strengthen his muscles and prepare for release.