Detained Imprints

An Ongoing Collaboration with Badri Valian

Detained Imprints is a collaborative project that takes many forms, grounded in an emotional autopsy, a way to excavate hope from our own personal and collective wounds. The focus is how to transform the experience of psycho-spiritual or physical detainment into artwork. “Detained” in this context can refer to the more typical imprisonment or death as well as subtler forms like domestic violence, psychological abuse, or other types of assault. The foundational material is burlap, reclaimed from a traumatic experience Badri had with the morality police in Tehran in 2006.  She was returning home, covered but not in uniform, and a policeman threatened her by saying: " I am going to put you in the potato sack, toss you inside the trunk and take you to hell.” While she was able to escape that particular detainment, part of her spirit was detained that day. Sarah joins in solidarity, contributing the philosophy behind the meditative monoprint technique she calls “imprinting,” in which writing becomes an alchemical force for releasing knots that detain parts of her energy. They invite participants to write the names of those who have been detained into the body of the artwork in order to imprint their memories into the work, transforming it into a memorial and liberating some bit of energy blocked by grief. It is through the power of this unique collaboration that the artists bring strength to each other and channel a force through which Detained Imprints can bring societal healing. 

If you’re curious to learn more about Detained Imprints, and/or have ideas for where it might fit into programming in your city or space, please reach out: