Statment:

Years ago, I came across a tree whose trunk had been tightly wrapped in barbed wire, leaving deep scars in its bark. It was wounded, yet it remained standing—alive and still growing.

Gradually, that image became a metaphor for the human experience: how scars continue to shape us long after the moment of injury has passed, becoming part of who we are.

Over the course of nearly three years, I created eighteen abstract trees, each one handmade individually. Their forms initially carried visible traces of pressure and damage, but through repeated carving, reconstruction, and polishing, they gradually evolved into calm, smooth surfaces.///

The making process itself became an extension of the work’s narrative. Each act of removing, carving, and returning to the sculpture echoed the central idea of the series—not the erasure of the past, but learning to live with it and discovering new ways to move forward.

Just as that tree continued to grow despite the scars left by the barbed wire, we too reshape ourselves over and over again while carrying the memory of our wounds.

This body of work reflects on the possibility of resilience—on our capacity to continue growing.

It is not about the absence of pain, but about what becomes possible once we learn to live with it.

Elnaz Rahimpour