Sammaneh Pourshafighi - You, Me and Everything Around Us

You, Me and Everything Around Us is a collection of works that navigates the artist’s autobiographical and familial relationships, tracing the shifting boundaries between family, environment, memory, and self. Through diverse materials and approaches, the works move between entanglement and isolation, reflecting the fluid and often contradictory nature of connection. Seemingly disparate forms—documentary, cartographic, and experimental gestures—are placed in dialogue, not in competition, allowing them to co-exist in their complexity.  

Developed during periods of profound personal upheaval, this exhibition looks at ways in which we both shape and are shaped by our surroundings—physically, politically, and emotionally. The interplay between material and meaning mirrors the intricacies of all relationships: layered, unstable, and deeply responsive to time and place. 

About the artist 

Sammaneh Pourshafighi is a queer Muslim artist who arrived in Australia as a refugee following the Iranian Revolution, growing up amidst the problematic paradise of the Gold Coast. A hereditary witch with ancestral roots in Isfahan, Gilan, and Kurdistan, her work deeply explores the intersections of diasporic identity, mysticism, and personal narratives, all through an intersectional feminist lens. 

Her practice is transdisciplinary, spanning photography, performance, and poetry. With a vibrant use of colour, surprising contrasts, and moments of humour, her work navigates the rich terrain of individual and collective histories. Blending the sacred and the profane in ways that challenge and celebrate. Sammaneh's art has been showcased in prominent exhibitions such as the Rising Festival, Photo 2024, and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.