Women Who Dance With Fire, 2025
Archival images, Transfer Print on Stonehenge 100% Cotton Paper
Slemmons collection and Internet-based Photos of Women, Life, Freedom
This project examines early 1900s negatives of Americana life, focusing on the roles women played and mapping the spaces where they were most active and visible—primarily educational institutions and domestic settings. These historical images are placed in dialogue with photographs from the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, which took place a century later in another part of the world.
The project celebrates the ongoing dance of women with fire—a metaphor for awareness and resistance in cultures that, to this day, refuse to recognize women as equals. This theme resonates even more urgently in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2024 election win and its potential impact on the fight for women’s rights, underscoring the cyclical nature of struggle and resilience across generations.
Mahsa Alafar is an Iranian artist, educator, and researcher currently residing in the US. Her practice revolves around the concept of the \Body as a Site of Resistance/ against any oppressive entity, whether it’s the patriarchal structures in place in Iran, the Western gaze regarding the Orient, or the culture of supremacy through any means—intellectual, racial, physical, philosophical, ideological, etc.