Fereshteh Toosi

Water Radio: Delaware River

2022

Fereshteh Toosi (they/them) designs experiences that pose questions and foster animistic connections through encounter, exchange, and sensory inquiry. Their artwork often involves documentary processes, oral history, and archival research. Immersive performances are produced in conjunction with small sculptures, short films, installations, scores, and poetry, often situated outdoors in gardens, parks, and waterways.

In 2022, Fereshteh is in a residency program with Solar Power for Artists. In 2021, they participated in the Montréal/Miami New Narratives Lab hosted by the National Film Board of Canada, O Cinema, MUTEK, and FilmGate Interactive. They also earned a Knight New Work 2020 award for their project Oil Ancestors, and a Miami Live Arts Lab Alliance residency to develop Metaphysical Hotline, a performance by telephone for an audience of one. Water Radio, a series of contemplative canoe and kayak outings, was supported by The Ellies Creator Award in 2018.

Fereshteh lives and works in El Portal, Florida on stolen lands still stewarded by the Miccosukee and Seminole people, and previously by the Calusa and Tequesta tribal bands. They are a professor in the Art and Art History Department of the College of Communication, Architecture, and the Arts at Florida International University. Read more at http://fereshteh.net.

A multisensory experience designed for the Independence Seaport Museum invites boaters to shift perception and reflect on our relationship with place. Using a mobile phone and headset, audio narration guides listeners to consider what the Delaware River rivershed might have felt like a century ago. Navigating the water, feeling the wind on our bodies, and imagining the smells of another era, we learn about history while contemplating questions about ancestors, migration, survival, and change.

To learn more about Fereshteh and their work, visit fereshteh.net.