Maedeh Mehdipour
MFA Fibers, 2025
The emotions we encounter in life are not solitary entities; they carry echoes from our past and transmit them into our future through new experiences. In other words, an entity entwined with the past, present, and future—what resonates more aptly with this concept of freedom? Can one really be free?
If every emotion and experience is shaped by what came before, then the struggle for freedom is never absolute—it is a constant negotiation with history, expectations, and the forces that seek to define us. In this ongoing push and pull, art emerges as a vessel for resistance, born from the tension between imposed expectations and an inner refusal to conform. Societal structures dictate roles, enforce unspoken rules, and demand complicance, creating a surface of outward acceptance. Yet beneath this, there exists a relentless, untamed resistance—one that refuses to be contained. This quiet rebellion manifests in creative expression, challenging rigid binaries and aesthetic conventions. It is not about beauty or obedience, but about confronting raw, unfiltered realities and questioning the absurdity of the structures that seak to define and limit.
"Ashes no longer bear the essence of humans!" 2025, wax, silicone, recycled fabric and rope, plaster, tubes, spray paint, water, aluminum, mirror sticker. box: 70x 30x8 inches. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"I’m holding," 2025, Installation Dimensions variable. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"I’m holding," 2025, Installation Dimensions variable. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"I’m holding," 2025, Installation Dimensions variable. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"I’m holding," 2025, Installation Dimensions variable. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
"Their blood did not seep into the Earth!" 2025, memory keeper bones (Occipital) in plaster cast, silicone, artist’s hair, metal. 30x 40x 10 inches.
"Their blood did not seep into the Earth!"(detail), 2025, memory keeper bones (Occipital) in plaster cast, silicone, artist’s hair, metal. 30x 40x 10 inches.
"Whisper of the souls!" 2025, wax, silicone, recycled fabric and rope, plaster, metal. 70x 60 x 10 inches.
"I will give birth to a new baby!" 2025, Bones cast in wax, sever motor, wood, cardboard, plastic. 30x 65 inches.
"Ashes no longer bear the essence of humans!" 2025, wax, silicone, recycled fabric and rope, plaster, tubes, spray paint, water, aluminum, mirror sticker. box: 70x 30x8 inches.
"Ashes no longer bear the essence of humans!"(detail), 2025, wax, silicone, recycled fabric and rope, plaster, tubes, spray paint, water, aluminum, mirror sticker. box: 70x 30x8 inches.
Maedeh Mehdipour
Maedeh Mehdipour (b. 1997) is an Iranian interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia, USA. Her practice engages a wide range of materials, fostering a dialogue between materiality and personal narrative. Combining fibers and sculpture, Mehdipour explores themes of resistance, identity, and freedom. Influenced by her experience growing up under a dictatorship, her work reflects on the impact of political and social pressures on personal and collective experiences, particularly through the lens of womanhood. She uses fabric, thread, and found objects to investifate the intersection of the body and lived experience with larger systems of control and expectation. Her work often grapples with the tension between public compliance and private resistance, using material processes to question and subvert dominant power structures.