This exhibition of new work by Soleimani presents large-scale photographs that exist in the realm of both documentary artifact and tableau photography. Medium of Exchange explores the West’s relationship with Middle Eastern trade and economy while discussing humanitarian issues that are often overlooked as a result of Western political interests. Sourcing images through media-links, Soleimani creates collaged mash-ups of information similar to that which we all access through our media saturated environment. The mediation of these images through their sculptural constructions compels the viewer to reassess their position in regard to what they see on a daily basis, inviting multiple and shifting definitions of what it means to live in an image-saturated environment.

The daughter of political refugees, Soleimani often inserts her own critical perspectives on historical and contemporary socio-political occurrences in Iran. Soleimani actively pulls apart and “de-laminates” photographic images gathered from various “documentary” source materials. She then reproduces those images and creates large three-dimensional scenarios where various images inhabit and interact with “real” objects in a volume of space. These scenarios are then re-photographed, printed, framed, and presented to the viewer as recordings of actual artifacts.

Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist currently residing in Providence, Rhode Island. She received a BFA from the University of Cincinnati and earned an MFA from Cranbook Academy of Art in 2015. She is currently Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design.