Elham Rokni

Much of Elham Rokni’s work deals with the interplay between what is possible and what is impossible and between success and failure, especially in relation to her experience as a wheelchair user. This often involves taking situations she has witnessed or experienced in urban spaces and recreating them in peripheral spaces.

Crossing the Dune was inspired by an experience the artist had at the beach with friends, where they laid boards on the sand in an attempt to help her move more easily in her wheelchair. She relocated this situation, and its ultimate failure, to the sand dunes of Ashdod in southern Israel, resulting in a work that is both frustrating and gently humorous.

Elham Rokni (1980, Tehran) lives and works in Tel-Aviv. She has been a professor at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design since 2013. In addition to numerous exhibitions in Israel and abroad, Rokni has won grants and awards such as Israel’s Minister of Culture Award for senior video artist (2018), Artis residency grant (2018), and the award for best experimental video art, Jerusalem Film Festival (2018).