Khatt Chronicles in Conversation with Golnar Adili

Khatt Chronicles in Conversation with Golnar Adili

From Khatt Chronicles: Stories on Design from the Arab World by afikra

November 28, 2025 · 41 min · Season 4 · Episode 9

About this episode

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Golnar Adili about her artistic journey and the intersection of architecture, visual arts, and cultural identity.

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian-American visual artist Golnar Adili on her journey from architecture to teaching and practicing visual arts. They discuss her work that transgresses borders and definition and how she uses the Perso-Arabic script and language as material for artistic exploration. Golnar talks about her love for science and art and how architecture brought these two passions together. She also discusses her first research trip to Tehran to investigate (free)inside/(controlled)outside spaces and what these notions represent in that particular cultural context, which was her starting point into becoming an artist. The research is concluded with a book of photographs entitled: "Tehran, A Landscape of Compressed Freedoms." Through the discussion, they unpack the relation between her work, her personal family history and experiences of living in diaspora, and her work as an artist and designer. They further explore these concepts in her other projects delving into her collage techniques and books arts projects. Golnar explains how her heart-language, Persian, plays a central role in her work, taking lyrical Persian poetry and making it contemporary through…

People in this episode

Host: Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès

Guest: Golnar Adili

Topics covered

  • visual arts
  • architecture
  • Perso-Arabic script
  • diaspora
  • gender
  • collage techniques

Keywords

  • Golnar Adili
  • visual artist
  • Perso-Arabic script
  • Tehran
  • diaspora
  • gender
  • collage
  • artistic exploration

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Tehran, A Landscape of Compressed Freedoms

Places: Tehran

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