About

Hoda Zarbaf (1982-2020) was an Iranian-Canadian artist, who produced over 50 multimedia sculptures, compositions and installations in the span of her short-yet-significant career. Born in Tehran, she received her BFA in Painting from University of Tehran faculty of Fine Arts, followed by her first MFA with a focus on Animation at Tehran University of Art, and a second master in Digital Media from University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada). Through her practice, Zarbaf raised the notion of memory, stitching found items that have individual human traces in them: used socks, youtube videos, worn T-shirts, home movies, restock monitors, dated audio, human hair, orphan dolls, and abandoned furniture. She brought together discarded, forgotten—and seemingly useless—domestic objects, fusing them with newly formed ceramics, lights, sounds, videos, or patchwork elements to confront nostalgia in a contemporary context. The uncanny and absurd characters of her pieces reference the basic human emotions that are derived from lack: fear, vulnerability, desire, pain, and melancholy.

Over the years, these multimedia, whimsical sculptures have traveled internationally to cities like Berlin, Hamburg, New York, and Vancouver; some have been showcased in museums like Toronto’s AGO and Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. They are also reported on by the global press, including BBC, CBC, The Guardian, and Hi-fructose Magazine. Hoda Zarbaf was featured in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow (2019) and Unravelling Women’s Art: Creators, Rebels & Innovators in Textile Arts (2021). On November 29th, 2020 she passed away quietly at home nine days after her final solo show, titled Honey, I am home!