Nava Derakshani and Mona Hakimi
United States of America + South Africa + Iran
Nava Derakshani and Mona Hakimi
Say My Name, 2020
Projected video
2:01 minutes
Names carry a lot of meaning and culture in both African and Iranian traditions. In this piece, Say my Name, Nava Derakshani uses an interview with her mother to tell her naming story. An Iranian immigrant born into a Swazi community, she was given two names at birth. One in Farsi and one in Siswati. Say My Name is a collaborative piece between Nava Derakshani and Mona Hakimi who have a similar liminal identity. Together they break down and reconstruct their names adapted by those who do not have their linguist background. Language and pronunciation help root misplaced individuals. They are a tie to a sense of home when we do not have a place to really claim as our own. This sense of separation is reinforced by the use of Zoom to create the work, with Mona in Johannesburg and Nava in New York City.
about the artists
Nava Derakhshani is a New York-based artist. Born to Iranian parents in Eswatini, her work explores themes of migration, identity, belonging, and gender. She holds a BA in Architecture from the University of Cape Town, working in South Africa and India. Her Masters, through Stellenbosch University, is in Sustainable Development. It took her to rural Ethiopia using photography and oral histories to explore the spiritual ties to farming and conservation. She is a 2020 graduate of the New Media Narratives program at the International Center for Photography. There she turned her lens onto herself exploring her identity through research, photography, and collage. Her practice is influenced by her experience in low-cost eco-housing and urban design, as well as by her NGO and grassroots work in human rights, social justice, and sustainability.
navaderakhshani.com
Mona Hakimi is made of many places: She has Malawian citizenship and Iranian heritage, but came of age in eSwatini and has made home in South Africa. Mona studied Social Anthropology and Gender Studies at the University of Cape Town, and later did a Masters in African Studies at the University of Oxford. She currently teaches writing and African Studies at a pan-African high school in Johannesburg. Mona is also a researcher and editor at Logos Open Culture, a storytelling start-up based in Malawi. With Nava Derakhshani, she started Daughters of Dust, a storytelling project about Iranian migrants to Africa. Their podcast was shortlisted for the 2019 NRF Google podcast award, and they continue to collaborate across the Atlantic.