Muffled Pulse

Muffled Pulse has been developing since late July 2025 in response to the war in my homeland, Iran. For many Iranians, however, the violence extended far beyond the battlefield, as the war was followed by intensified state repression, widespread killings, and a prolonged internet shutdown that left the country in silence for months.

Emerging from a diasporic position, my experience is shaped not through direct physical presence but through mediated witnessing—continuous exposure to disturbing images, testimonies, and news that escaped the imposed internet firewall. From afar, as a land of colour, poetry, and love gradually descended into darkness, painting became both a frequent record and a space for processing ongoing trauma. Emotional responses slowly accumulated into material form through shifting intensities of gesture, composition, and colour.

Drawing on the geometric language and symbolism of Iranian historical architecture, the paintings move between within and beyond, fragment and whole, order and disruption.

Muffled Pulse unfolds within a prolonged state of limbo between distanceand proximity, where loss, vulnerability, and hope coexist, allowing meaning to emerge through the experience of looking rather than through fixed narratives. The works adopt multiple expressions, at times unfolding as poetic compositions that reflect on suHocation and freedom.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Samira Khadivizand

Samira Khadivizand (she/her) is an Iranian Australian interdisciplinary artist based in Melbourne. Her practice explores emotional and psychological dissonances shaped by transcultural identity and displacement. Drawing on classical Persian literature and architecture, she transforms symbolic meanings into abstract imagery to reflect on memory, identity, and belonging.

Since migrating to Australia in 2010, Khadivizand has exhibited widely, she holds an MFA from RMIT University. receiving multiple awards, including the 2025 ADFAS Award and NAVA Ignition Prize.

Artist website

Hero Image: Samira Khadivizand, MuHled Pulse / State 07, 2026, Oil on Linen, 102 x 102 x 3 cm.

Photography credit: Samira Khadivizand