Leili Walker, Paper
How has your practice changed over time?
Oh lord, well, I started out painting as a form of therapy. When I finished my undergraduate degree I was uninspired and sickened by the thought of ever looking at anything I’d studied again hahahaha. Art was initially an escape, a way for me to work through trauma associated with sexual assault. A lot of that earlier work was queer smut, erotica that helped me visualise my own sexuality and gender identity. After a bout of agoraphobia that kept me indoors for several months, I began to paint as a way to experience the outside world, to create and inhabit worlds beyond my bedroom that I could feel safe in.
As the years have passed I’ve increasingly found myself drawing on the mathematics and theology I studied in my degree to build these worlds. It’s still most definitely a form of therapy, but now I draw upon elements of non-Euclidean geometry and Islamic architecture to construct the paintings. As COVID has brought international travel to a halt, art has become a way for me to connect with my family in Iran, to document their stories and honour the lives of those we’ve lost along the way.
What is your work about?
My work explores ideas of spatial memory, agoraphobia and queer and Irani-diasporic identity. I have a background in mathematics and theology and am heavily inspired by Islamic architecture, girih, and Persian calligraphy. I use these tools to build worlds that weave elements of my cultural ancestry in with the minutiae of everyday life. Each of my paintings aims to create a heterotopia in which viewers can lose themselves, see reflections of their existence and question the relationship between the visible and spiritual worlds.
Where can the viewer see more of your work?
OOoh! I’ll be re-entering the outside world and live-painting at a MMW event with Good Mood Melbourne in early December! I occasionally run workshops through Pink Ember Studios - a queer art collective and community space that is very dear to my heart. Otherwise my website and print store are at leili.studio, and my instagram is @_leili___ !
