‘My ancestors’ knowledge of hidden waters binds my spirit to the desert.

To honour my ancestors, I first honour the Sanctum of Qanāt.’

This work explores Qanāt, an ancient living process for collecting and transporting underground hidden water, across the arid deserts of the Iranian plateau. Through Qanāt, my ancestors weaved themselves into the nature of the deserts using their intimate knowledge of landscape, geology and territory. I interpret Qanāt as more than an ancient living process. It offers me the history and origins of my own distant culture and reveals an Iranian identity deeply rooted in ancestral connections to land and place. The Sanctum of Qanāt explores the idea of Qanāt through textiles—my way of re-connecting to my displaced Iranian identity.